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THE 

SERMONS, LECTURES, AND SPEECHES 

DELIVERED BY HIS EMINENCE 

/ 

CARDINAL WISEMAN, 

|irtl]bisl]05f 0f Mnimmttx, 
DURING HIS TOUR IN IRELAND 

IN AUGUST AND SEriEMBER, 1858, 
WITH HIS LECTURE DELIVERED IN LONDON 

ON 

THE "IMPRESSIONS" OF HIS TOUR. 



/ , O REVISED BY HIS EMINENCE. 

WITH A CONNECTING NAREATIYE. 




BOSTON : 
PATRICK DONA HOE, 

23 Franklin Street. 
1859. 



9^ 



PEEFACE. 



It was . a kind thought of others that prompted the pubhca- 
tion of . this volume. ; When . the events were over of which 
it is a record, when the little had been said and done that, at 
the time, attracted some attention, there was no other idea than 
to let them drop into the current of the past, and be reraem- 
.bered or forgotten as chance might direct. It was, however, 
.resolved, without any participation of the author's in the de- 
sign, to collect the fragments of what to him had been a "feast 
of soul," and preserve them, however little worthy of such an 
honor. 

This being determined on, he felt that he could not commit 
to any other revision than his own, what he had spoken. The 
short-hand writers' notes, however able, from which it had to 
be published, were necessarily inaccurate ; and he felt it would 
be unfair to reprint them without accurate correction. And 
this no one could well make, especially after a certain lapse 
of time, except the original speaker. Indeed, if he had re- 
fused, or even not offered his concurrence in this part of the 
work, he might have seen himself reasonably charged with 
sentiments or assertions which had never proceeded from his 
lips, and possibly opposed to what he had really uttered. 

This will be his apology for what otherwise, in addition to 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

many other imperfections, might have had to bear the imputa- 
tion of being a selfish proceeding. But should any further 
excuse be considered necessary for his share in this publica- 
tion, he could find it in the wish expressed, by authority too 
deeply venerated by him to be disobeyed, even in a desire, 
that an accurate account should be published, of the events of 
the short visit to Ireland here commemorated. 

The connecting narrative has been entirely intrusted to 
other hands. The groundwork of it is necessarily the day- 
by-day report of papers at the time ; but they have been 
revised, and, no doubt, toned down, by a lay gentleman of con- 
siderable literary experience and celebrity. 

If there be any interest attached to this volume, or any ad- 
vantage resulting from it, the reader must hold himself entirely 
indebted to the generous kindness of the publisher, who has 
done so much for the moral and religious press of his country, 
and whose spirit of enterprise is always regulated by such high 
motives as stamp a patriotic and Catholic character on all 
that he undertakes. His countrymen know well how to appre- 
ciate his persevering efforts. 

London, Feb. 26, 1859. 



CARDINAL WISEMAN'S 

TOUR IN IRELAND. 



It is proposed in the following pages to connect, by a 
narrative, the Sermons, Lectures, and Speeches delivered 
by Cardinal Wiseman on the occasion of his visit to Leland. 
This, the only object of the narrative, will be answered by 
a history of his Eminence's progress, as plain and as short 
as may be found to consist with a fair knowledge of the 
circumstances under which these compositions were de- 
livered. The best memorial of the unprecedented enthu- 
siasm with which the people saluted the presence of the 
Cardinal exists in his Eminence's own descriptions, and 
the subject is one upon the details of which the narrative 
can well afford to be almost silent. 

His Eminence arrived in Kingstown, from Holyhead, at 
nine o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 23d of 
August, accompanied by the Rev. E. L. Clifford and his 
kinsman, Mr. Wiseman. He was received on landina; by 
Captain Bellew, Mr. Burke, of Loughrea, and the Rev. 
Wilham Derry, P.P., Eyrecourt ; while the passage lead- 
mg from the steamer to the railway station was occupied 
by crowds, who had assembled in anticipation of the arrival 
of his Eminence. At the station he was met by his Grace 
the Archbishop of Dublin, Tlie Hon. and Riglit Rev. 
Monsignor Talbot, one of his Hohness's principal cham- 
berlains, and domestic prelate, accompanied him to town. 
On arriving at the Westland Row terminus, the Cardinal, 
the Archbishop of Dublin, and the other dignitaries and 

1* (5) 



6 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

clerg}^, proceeded to the residence of his Grace, in Eccles 
Street, to breakfast. Shortly after twelve o'clock his 
Eminence drove to the Imperial Hotel, where he was 
joined by the Archbishop, the Very Rev. Mgr. Yore, the 
Very Rev. Mgr. Meagher, and the Hon. and Rev. Mgrs. 
Talbot and Clifford, with whom he proceeded to visit tbe 
principal religious and charitable institutions of the city. 
On Tuesday morning his Eminence left the Broadstone 
terminus by the half past ten o'clock train for Ballinasloe. 
He was accompanied by the Right Rev. Dr. Mac Nally, 
Bishop of Clogher, the Bishop of Elphin, the Bishop of 
Cloyne, the Rev. E. L. Clifford, the Hon. and Right Rev. 
Monsignor Talbot, Mr. Wiseman, the Rev. William Derry, 
P.P., Eyrecourt, the Rev. Mr. Bannon, Captain Belle w, 
and several other clergymen and gentlemen, who intended 
to be present at the ceremonial in Ballinasloe. Long before 
his arrival, however, a large number of clergy and laity, 
including several ladies, had assembled on the platform 
to pay their respects to his Eminence, and to ask his 
blessing. His Eminence was received at the terminus 
with the most marked respect by the officers of the com- 
pany, and, upon his departure, expressed his sense of the 
courtesy and attention which had been shown him. Al- 
though anxious preparation had been made by the Bishop 
of Clonfert, and by the Town Commissioners of Ballina- 
sloe, to do honor to his Eminence on his coming to assist 
at the consecration of their church, yet the most remark- 
able feature in the welcome accorded to the Cardinal was 
the enthusiasm of the people. It would be a mistake to 
measure, by any ordinary standard^ the strength and dura- 
tion of Irish enthusiasm in matters of religion. Probably 
no political. question or political emergency is of sufficient 
interest, in their present apathy and disappointment, to 
draw five thousand Irishmen together, though with solici- 
tation and under pressure ; whereas the poorest peasant, 
recognizing in the. Cardinal not only the champion of his 
religion', but a man nearer in place and function to the 
Pope than lie had ever seen, or might ever hope to see 
again, leaves his house and his work for no heavier bribe 
than the Cardinal's blessing, which, coming from the 



PROGRESS TO BALLINASLOE. 7 

Cardinal, he values as a more direct emanation of virtue 
from the Roman See. The peculiar significance of this 
enthusiasm was not lost upon the Cardinal. His coming 
was looked forward to with the deepest interest, and, on 
its being known that he might be expected by the train 
arriving at two o'clock, the Town Commissioners, and 
tlie inhabitants generally, proceeded in a vast concourse 
to the railway station, considerably before that time, to 
bid him welcome, and to receive his benediction. Mean- 
while, at almost every station along the line, crowds of 
people gathered, who cheered loudly, and evinced the 
utmost happiness at seeing the Cardinal. The display of 
public feeling which took place at Mullingar, where the 
train stopped for about twenty miautes, was such as took 
him altogether by surprise, and afforded him the sincerest 
gratification. Along the platforms, and at every point 
from which a view could be obtained, clergy, gentry, and 
people gathered, and on his Eminence appearing, hailed 
him with continued cheering. He was conducted to a 
waiting-room, in which he assumed some of his cardina- 
litial costume, consisting of the scarlet cassock, mantel- 
letto, and mozzetta, with the rochet, head-dress, and pec- 
toral cross. The bishops and clergy in attendance also 
put on their robes. When they reappeared, the multitude 
prostrated themselves in the most reverential manner, and 
received the Cardinal's and the bishops' blessing. There 
was a similar demonstration at Athlone, where the train 
made a brief stay. On its approach to Ballinasloe, the 
interposition of the clergy became necessary to moderate 
the enthusiasm of the people, who pressed forward, not 
without danger to their lives, and, as the train rolled 
slowly alongside the platform, the cheering was vehement. 
As the Cardinal's visit is now an event of historic inter- 
est, and as it is matter of distinction to have been present 
upon any of the occasions made memorable by his prog- 
ress, we subjoin, in a note, the names of those who took 
part in the occurrences described. 

[The Lord Bishop of Clonfert, the Hev. Sir Christopher 
Bellew, Bart., S.J. ; the Rev. Malachy Greene, P.P., Clon- 



8 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

tuskert ; Rev. Wm. Manning, P.P., Aiighrim ; Rev. Mr. 
M'Gauran, P.P., Ahascragh ; Rev. Mr. Kirwan, R.C.A., 
Ballinasloe ; Rev. Dr. O'Brien, President St. Jarlatli's, 
Tuam ; Rev. Mr. Walsh, P.P., Lusmagh ; Rev. Mr. Egan, 
P.P., Cloghan ; Rev. W. King, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. M-Na- 
mara, C.C. ; Rev. Garrett Dillon, Castleblakeney ; Rev. 
W. Larkin ; Rev. J. Noone, P.P., Menlo ; Rev. John 
Macklin, P.P. ; Rev. James Hynes ; Rev. Michael Cal- 
lahan, P.P., Kiltulla ; Rev. M. Galvin, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. 
Pelley ; Dr. Burke, ex-chairman Town Commissioners of 
Ballinasloe; George Crowe, Esq., Aughrim ; Robert Bod- 
kin, Esq. ; William Hynes, T.C. ; Michael Finnerty, T.C. ; 
Timothy Egan, T.C. ; John O'Shaughncssy, Esq., Birch- 
grove ; Hugh O'Kelly, Esq., Woodmount ; Francis E. 
Sladden, Esq. ; Wm. Costelloe, Esq. ; Junius Horan, 
Esq. ; Jeoffrey Prendergast, Esq. ; Dr. Colahan ; Thomas 
Hyde, Esq., solicitor, T.C. ; Patrick Ward, T.C. ; John 
Heenan, T.C. ; Wm. O'Shaughncssy, merchant ; Robert 
H. Smith, Esq., T.C. (Western Star') ; Thomas Carroll, 
T.C. ; William Laghey, merchant ; Garrett Larkin, Esq., 
Cruagh House. 

On the platform were several Protestant gentlemen of 
the town. Amongst those who travelled with Cardinal 
Yf iseman were the Lord Bishop of Elphin, the Lord Bishop 
of Cloglier, the Lord Bishop of Cloyne, the Bishop Elect 
of Killaloo, the Rev. E. L. Clifford, the Hon. and Right 
Rev. Monsignor Talbot, Mr. Wiseman, the Yery Rev. Dr. 
Derry, P.P., Eyrecourt ; the Rev. Mr. Bannon, P.P., 
Moyne, County Tipperary ; Captain Belle w, and other 
gentlemen.] 

On the road leading to the station, at either side, were 
a number of carriages occupied by ladies from the town 
and the country, who joined most cordially in the general 
manifestation by waving their handkerchiefs. When the 
Cardinal stepped out on the platform, the clergy and peo- 
ple crowded around him, and, kneeling down, received 
his benediction. 

The carriage of Captain Belle w was in waiting, and his 
Eminence, having been conducted to it by the Bishop of 



PROGRESS TO BALLINASLOE. 9 

Clonfert and Mr. Bellew, took his seat with the Bishop of 
Clogher and Monsigrior Talbot, amid incessant cheering. 
The carriage went at a slow pace in the direction of the 
town, preceded by the multitude, carrying flags and green 
boughs, and followed by a long line of carriages and 
vehicles of various descriptions. The windows of almost 
every house in the line of route were occupied by ladies, 
who waved handkerchiefs and banners as his Eminence 
passed. When the procession had reached about half way 
into the town, the horses were removed from the carriage 
in wliich his Eminence sat, and he was drawn in triumph 
through the streets. At various points large poles were 
elevated, from which floated banners and ribbons ; and 
across the street in which Gill's Hotel is situated, garlands 
of green boughs were suspended, intertwined with flowers, 
from a central point of which hung a banner bearing the 
inscription — " Welcome, Cardinal Wiseman, to Ballina- 
sloe." Soon after entering the hotel, he presented him- 
self at the balcony, when the vast multitude went on their 
knees, as one man, and received his benediction. 

His Eminence frequently expressed his surprise at the 
enthusiasm of the demonstration with which he had been 
welcomed, and on his arrival at the hotel, when sur- 
rounded by the prelates, clergy, and laity, who were 
present to offer their congratulations and respects, he 
stated that he was deeply impressed with the reception 
which had been given him, and would ever remember it 
with gratitude. 

The displeasure of the " Irish Church Mission Society," 
at the triumphant visit of the Cardinal, and the violent 
efforts of the parties composing it to do something to make 
an appearance, were manifested by various ludicrous cir- 
cumstances. Walking through the town, the attention 
of a stranger was attracted by observing here and there 
on the walls large placards setting forth in imposing 
type that the society would give the sum of X40,000 to 
any person or persons who would prove the Catliolic rule 
of faith, and especially inviting his Eminence to claim 
that sum by complying with this requirement of the 
society. Members of the society, well known for their 



10 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. -^ 

controversial harangues in Townsend Street, came down 
specially. A letter, signed by sixteen Protestant clergy- 
men, challenging him to a public discussion, was forwarded 
to him. An incident which occurred on the arrival of his 
Eminence at the railway station Is worthy of mention, as 
indicating; the dismay which the visit of his Eminence 
caused in the minds of a few, who are not at all sympa- 
thized with by the respectable Protestants of the place. 
As. the Cardinal was proceeding from the train to the car- 
riage which was in waiting for him, amidst the cheers of 
the crowd, there appeared at the window of a second class 
carriage a pale face, every feature of which was quivering 
with emotion. It was that of a person who, judging from 
his general appearance, was a clergyman of the Church 
of England, and who was understood to protest, in the 
most excited manner, "as a British subject, and a mem- 
ber of the church as by law established, against the intro- 
duction into this country of Popish ceremonies." The 
gentleman continued to talk a great deal, and to shake liis 
liead very energetically, as if he felt what he said ; but, 
fortunately for himself, nobody, save one or two who were 
pressed by the crowd against the carriage which he oc- 
cupied, heard a word of his address. The multitude 
passed on, cheering as they went, and, in a second, this 
very foolish gentleman was left alone. He had evidently 
come from town specially for the purpose of thus making 
himself ridiculous by uttering his " protest," which was 
altogether unheard by the multitude, and only laughed at 
by- those who did hear it. It is proper, however, to state 
that the respectable Protestants of the neighborhood 
altogether disclaimed any connection with such offensive 
proceedings. • 

. The demonstrations of joy and welcome on the arrival 
of Cardinal Wiseman were continued throughout the 
evening and up to an advanced hour at night with in- 
creasing enthusiasm. The streets were crowded by the 
inhabitants, not only of the town but of the country 
around, who poured in to participate in the general happi- 
ness. Numbers of respectable persons came from distant 
places in order to attend the ceremony of next day. 



BALLINASLOE. 11 

The town was brilliantly illuminated, and although a 
few houses were in darkness, they were so few that the 
circumstance served to show, more strikingly, the univer- 
sality of this tribute of respect to his Eminence. The 
majority of the windows were also decorated with flow- 
ers tastefully disposed and formed into appropriate de- 
vices. Chinese lamps were hung out at favorable points. 
in the open air, and thousands continued in the streets 
through the .town till near midnight. Several more prel- 
ates arrived, including the Archbishop of Tuam and the 
Bishop of. Gal way.. 

- His Eipin'ence was. entertained at dinner, in Gill's Hotel, 
by, the, Eight Rev. the Bishop of Clonfert. There was a 
very : large ■ company of bishops and clergy present to 
meet him.: . 

: The utmost order and decorum characterized the con- 
duct of the people — a result which rather disappointed 
some who are not their friends. 

THE CONSECRATION OF ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH. 

Tiie consecration of the Church of St. Michael, Ballina- 
sloe, took place on Wednesday, the 25th of August, and, 
from the nature of the circumstances connected Avith it, 
was perhaps tlie most remarkable religious ceremonial in 
this country for over three hundred years. The church, 
to the erection of which the faithful people of the district 
have contributed from their humble means during several 
years past, is a graceful structure. Many venerable prel- 
ates, and hundreds of zealous clergy, came from various 
parts of the country to assist at the rite of consecration ; 
the people congregated in thousands, and an illustrious 
member of the Sacred College — the first of that body who 
has been enabled to officiate in this country for centuries 

— made the occasion memorable by his presence. He was 
hailed with an enthusiasm that proclaims, above all things, 
the attachment of the Irish people to the See of Peter ; 
while all classes, and both sexes, united to do him honor 
and give him welcome. The demonstrations wliich sur- 
prised and gratified him on his entering the town were 



12 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

continued with increasing fervor from the moment of his 
arrival. In the course of Tuesday evening, hundreds 
came into town from distant parts of the country for the 
purpose of witnessing the ceremonial of consecration, and 
on that night the entire accommodation for visitors was 
exhausted. The next morning, from an early hour, the 
roads leading into Ballinasloe were thronged by carriages 
and by foot passengers, proceeding to the centre of interest. 
The streets were so crowded that it was with difficulty a 
man could make his way from one point to another, es- 
pecially in the neighborhood of the new church, or of the 
hotel at which Cardinal Wiseman was staying, and in 
front of which large groups of persons were constantly 
assembled. The shops were closed, and all business was 
suspended. In order to meet the anxiety of the clergy 
and laity in various places far beyond the bounds of the 
county to have an opportunity of attending, special trains 
were run upon the Midland Railway, and numbers availed 
themselves of this facility. 

The church consecrated on this day stands at the east- 
ern end of the town, on the bank of the River Sue, a 
tributary of the Shannon. It is built from designs by 
Mr. McCarthy, which had the additional advantage of being 
revised by the late Mr. Pugin ; and the mention of two 
such names affords a sufficient guarantee of the ecclesias- 
tical character of the building. The design is one which 
is not uncommon at present. It includes a nave, chancel, 
two aisles, an apse at the eastern end, and lateral chapels, 
one of which is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the 
other to St. Jokn the Baptist. The style of architecture 
is early English, of the decorative period. The extreme 
length of the nave, including the chancel, is 150 feet, and 
its width, including the aisles, is 60 feet. The building 
is lofty, probably 60 feet from the floor to the reach. The 
aisles are separated from the nave by stone pillars, from 
which spring arches, also of cut stone. The chancel, the 
chapels, and sacristy are tiled in appropriate patterns, 
and the high altar of rich marble was this day consecrated 
with the church. The roof is an open one ; and the 
openings formed by the structural timl3ers of the line and 



BALLINASLOE. 13 

purloins have been filled iip with panel work of various 
patterns. There is one feature particularly deserving of 
notice, and that is the large chancel arch separating the 
nave from the chancel, which runs to a height of about 
45 feet. The tower and spire will be about 175 feet liigh 
from the ground. The former has been already carried 
to about the top of the roof, and will be proceeded with 
immediately. The work generally is of the most solid 
description. The area of the church has been almost en- 
tirely enclosed by an iron paling of suitable design. In 
the apse there is a stained glass window, the architectural 
character of which may be said to be borrowed from the 
neighboring ruin of a Franciscan convent at Kilconnel. 
The fundamental lines are exactly the same. The win- 
dow is indebted for much of its effect to the artistic and 
elegant designs of Mr. Barff, carried out to the entire 
satisfaction of those who intrusted him with the com- 
mission. The church is dedicated to S-t. Michael, the 
Archangel, and the scriptural incidents connected with 
him, such as the expulsion of Satan from heaven, after 
the design of Michael Angelo, and the blowing of the last 
trumpet, are naturally prominent in the design. In the 
same line of lights are figures of St. Gabriel announcing 
the Incarnation to our Lady, and of the angel Raphael, 
upon his journey with Tobias. In the lower line of lights 
are the saints for whom there is the greatest veneration 
in the diocese of Clonfert — St. Patrick, the apostle of the 
country ; St. Brendan, patron of the diocese ; St. Brid- 
get, patroness of the country ; and St. Dympna, a royal 
Irish virgin, martyred at Gale, near Antwerp. The head 
of the window contains, in its most prominent light, a 
picture of our Lady in Glory, and in the two adjacent 
compartments are figures of venerating angels — one 
bearing a crown and the other a sceptre. 

The ceremony of consecration, which is not of frequent 
occurrence here, as prescribed by the Pontifical, is of 
great length and singular impressiveness. It was per- 
formed by the Bishop of the diocese, assisted by a large 
body of his clergy. His lordship, in full pontificals, be- 
gan the rite at seven o'clock in the morning, and had not 
2 



14 CAEDiNAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

concluded before eleven. About ten feet above the 
ground round the inside of the walls were placed crosses 
in brass work, and at the top of each cross was a lighted 
candle. These crosses, which are anointed with chrism, 
serve forever as a memorial and evidence of consecration. 
They are yet to be found on the walls of now ruined 
churches. It would be out of place here to give a de- 
scription of the rite of consecration. It is sufficient to 
say that every part of it was brought out in its full beauty 
by the manner in which it was performed. 

The general congregation was not admitted until eleven 
o'clock ; and from the extent of the church and the vast 
crowds waiting anxiously to obtain entrance, the admis- 
sion in a regular manner was a work which occupied 
considerable time. The arrangements, however, were 
excellent, and were efficiently carried out by the gentle- 
men who acted as stewards at the different doors, and 
throughout the interior. The altar, altar platform, and 
steps are of pure marble, and the decorations were in 
good taste. At the Gospel side stood the Cardinal's 
throne on a dais, and covered by a canopy, the entire 
being of rich scarlet. The seats for the bishops were 
erected at both sides towards the front, and they were 
also covered with scarlet cloth. The faldstool for the 
celebrant of the High Mass was placed on the Epistle side, 
and opposite to him the chair of the Bishop of the diocese. 
The following prelates were present : — 

His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam. 

Tlie Lord Bishop of Clonfert. 

The Lord Bishop of Elpliin. 

The Lord Bishop of Ardagh. 

The Lord Bishop of Clogher. 

The Lord Bishop of Cloyne. 

The Lord Bishop of Kilmacduagh. 

The Lord Bishop of Ross. 

The Lord Bishop of Galway. 

The Coadjutor Bishop (elect) of Killaloe. 

Their lordships were attired in roclict, cope, and mitre. 



BALLINASLOE. 15 

The clergy, nearly four hundred of whom were present, 
wearing soutanes and surplices, were ranged in the choir 
to the right and left of the sanctuary, and many also 
were dispersed throughout the church. 

[The following were amongst the clergy present : — 
The Very Rev. Dean Durcan, P.P., Swineford ; the Rev. 
Peter Daly, P.P., Gal way ; the Yery Rev. William Derry, 
P.P., Eyrecourt; Rev. E. Coyne, R.C.A., Tuam ; Rev. 
Mr. Reynolds, P.P., Claremorris ; Yery Rev. Patrick 
M'Gauran, P.P., chaplain to the Bishop of Elphin ; Rev. 
William M'Gauran (Elphin) ; Rev. Patrick Duffy, P.P., 
Dunmore ; Rev. John 0' Grady, P.P., Athenry ; Rev. Mr. 
M'Loughlen, CO., ditto ; Rev. Mr. Burke, C.C., Menlo ; 
Rev. Dr. Fitzgerald, Mountbellew ; Rev. Mr. Hardiman, 
P.P., Ballinrobe ; Rev. Thomas O'Malley, C.C., Miltown ; 
Rev. Edward King, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. M'Namara, C.C. ; 
Rev. Mr. Bahnon, P.P., Moyne, County Tipperary ; Rev. 
G. Harold, Ballybrack, County Dublin ; Rev. Wm. Mor- 
ris, P.P., Borrisoleigh, County Tipperary ; Rev. Mr. M'Ma- 
nus, Francis Street; Rev. Mr. Beardwood, Dublin; 
Archdeacon Fitzgerald, P.P., Rathkeale ; Rev. James 
Roche, P.P., Wexford ; Rev. Thomas Roche, C.C.,Ennis- 
corthy ; Rev. Mr. Roche, P.P., Clare-Galway ; Rev. Mr. 
Nolan, R.C.A., Ballina ; Rev. Mr. Hughes, C.C, Ennis- 
killen ; Rev. Mr. Rush, O.S.D., Galway, and several oth- 
er members of the same community ; Rev. Mr. Commins, 
P.P., Galway ; Rev. Mr. Head, P.P., Newinn, Woodlawn ; 
Rev. Mr. Cavanagh, P.P., Oughterard ; Rev. Mr. Daly, 
Galway Diocese ; Rev. Mr. Joyce, ditto ; Rev. Dr. O'Bri- 
en, President St. Jarlath's College, Tuam; M. L'Abbe 
Cruise, of Paris, one of the Emperor's chaplains (this 
divine is connected by birth with Ballinasloe) ; Rev. M. 
Greene, P.P., Clontuskert ; Rev. Dean Burke, Clonfert ; 
Rev. William Manning, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. M'Gauran, P.P., 
Ahascragh ; Rev. J. Noone, P.P., Menlo ; Rev. Mr. Egan, 
P.P., Cloghan ; Rev. Mr. M'Donnell, P.P., Fintona, Clo- 
gher ; Rev. Mr. Walsh, P.P. ; Rev. James Hynes ; Rev. 
Mr. Joyce, P.P. ; Yery Rev. Dr. Shannon, P.P., Gort; 
Rev. WiUiam Macklin, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. M'Kernie, P.P. ; 



16 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Rev. E. M'Kenna, Monaghan Seminary ; Rev. Mr. Burke 
P.P. ; Rev. J. Flannelly, Abbey ; Rev. J. Cavanagh, P.P. 
Abbey ; Rev. Geoffrey Burke ; Rev. Mr. Barry, P.P. 
Clara (diocese of Meath) ; Rev. Mr. M'CuUagli, P.P. 
Tullamore ; Rev. Mr. Smith, Longwood ; Rev. Mr. Colgan 
Summer Hill (Co. Meath) ; Yery Rev. Dr. O'Connor, P.P. 
Templemore ; Rev. Thomas Coen, P.P. ; Rev. W. Man 
ning, P.P. ; Rev. P. Conallen, P.P. ; Rev. L. Egan ; Rev 
T. Walsh, C.C. ; Rev. R. Rafferty, C.C. ; Rev. M. Clarke 
P.P. ; Rev. J. Larkin, C.C. ; Rev. T. Head, P.P. ; Rev 
T. Pelly, administrator ; Rev. J. Whelan, administrator 
Rev. William Derry, P.P. ; Rev. J. Hynes, C.C. ; Rev. J 
Cavanagh, P.P. ; Rev. P. Burke, P.P. ; Rev. J. Kernan 
C.C. ; Rev. J. Macklin, P.P. ; Rev. T. Mulkerin, C.C. 
Rev. T. Ryan, C.C. ; Rev. A. Griffin, P.P. ; Rev. T. Caha 
Ian, P.P. ; Rev. T. Burke, P.P. ; Rev. J. Farrell, C.C. 
Rev. F. White, C.C. ; Rev. J. Calloggy, P.P. ; Rev. M 
Walsh, P.P. ; Rev. P. Galvhi, P.P. ; Rev. J. Walsh, C.C. 
from diocese of Clonfert, &c., &c. 

There was a very large assemblage of the Catholic 
gentry of the county in the nave. Amongst those present 
we observed Lord Ffrench, Pierce Joyce, Esq., High 
Sheriff of the county ; Sir Thomas Burke, Bart., M.P. ; 
Sir Thomas N. Redington, K.C.B., and Lady Redington ; 
Charles Farrell, J. P., Dalystown ; James Smith, Esq., 
Masonbrook ; Captain Thomas Bellew, Robert D'Arcy, 
J. P., Woodville ; Oliver Dolphin, Jun., Tervoc ; Edmund 
Donnellan, Esq., Hilswood ; P. M. Lynch, Renmore Park; 
Captain Eyre, Edward Brown, Coloo ; D. Bodkin, Esq., 
Annagh ; the High Sheriff of the town of Galway ; J. 
Daly, Esq., Castledaly ; Cornelius O'Kelly, Esq., Gallagh ; 
James Blake, Esq., Ardfry ; Ambrose O'Kelly, Esq., Fair- 
field ; Charles Bianconi, Esq. ; Patrick O'Kelly, of Cra- 
ron ; Dr. Burke, ex-chairman of the Ballinasloe Town 
Commissioners ; John Blake, Esq., Cregg ; M. O'Leary, 
Esq., Manager of the National Bank, Loughrea ; Richard 
Kelly, Esq., J.P., Chairman of the Town Commissioners, 
Tuam ; P. Blake, Esq., Bay view ; John M. O'Hara, Esq., 
Sub-Sheriff; Matthew Ryan, Esq., Mullagh ; Thomas 
Macklin, Esq., Loughrea ; Garrett Larkin, Esq., Craugh; 



BALLINASLOE. . 17' 

James M'Dermott, Esq., J. P. ; James Daly, Esq., Coo- 
lanny ; Francis Lynch, M.D., Loiighrea ; Major Cruise, 
James Skeritt, Woodville, Eyrecoiirt ; Thomas Hyde, So- 
licitor, Ballinasloe ; Joseph Henry Cowan, Esq. ; Alder- 
man John Reynolds, Kiltormer ; Michael M'Dermott, 
Rahamore ; Thomas Larkin, Esq. ; Edmond Kelly, Kil- 
leen ; John Blake, Esq., Fertagh ; John Blake, J. P., 
Tintrim; Pat. Sweeny, Esq.; P. O'Rorke, Esq., Chair- 
man of the Town Commissioners of Athlone ; J. O'Kelly, 
J. P., Gurtrary ; Thomas Coen, Esq., Manchester ; William 
Hynes, T.C., Ballinasloe ; T. Egan, T.C., ditto ; John 
O'Shaughnessy, Esq., Birchgrove ; James Horan, Esq., 
Francis E. Madden, Michael Finnerty, T.C. ; Hugh 
O'Kelly, Esq., Woodmount; P. Colahan, Esq., M.D. ; 
Geoffrey Prendergast, Esq. ; Patrick Ward, T.C. ; Wil- 
liam O'Shaughnessy, Esq., merchant ; William Costelloe, 
Esq., and many others.] 

Shortly after eleven o'clock the procession of bishops, 
clergy, and assistants, preceded by the processional cross, 
the bearer of which was attended by acolytes, entered the 
sanctuary from the sacristy. The "^trains of the bishops 
Avere borne by youths attired in cassock and surplice. 
The Cardinal walked last, attended by the deacons at his 
throne, the Roy. E. L. Clifford, the Rev. Sir Christopher 
Bellow, Bart., and the Rev. William Burke, his Eminence's 
nephew. His Eminence wore the ordinary robes of a Car- 
dinal. When he had taken his place on the throne, and 
the prelates were in their seats, the pontifical Mass was 
begun by his Grace of Tuam, who officiated as celebrant. 
He was attended by the Rev. Eugene Coyne, as assistant 
priest; the deacon being the Rev. Mr. Pellv, adminis- 
trator, Loughrea ; subdeacon, Rev. Mr. Mulhern, Balli- 
nasloe ; masters of the ceremonies, the Rev. Dr. O'Brien, 
St. Jarlath's College, and the Rev. Mr. Whelan. 

Ilari's Mass was chanted in a solemn and effective 
manner by a choir of clergymen, assisted by some accom- 
plished amateur vocalists, under the direction of C. B. 
Lyons, Esq., Secretary to his Grace the Archbishop of 
Dublin. The Choir included the Rev. George Harold, 



18 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Dublin ; Rev. Mr. Hampson, Lusk ; Eev. Michael Mul- 
laly, of St. Mary, Star of the Sea ; Rev. Mr. M'Mauus, 
St. Nicholas of Myra, Francis Street ; Rev. Mr. Daniel, 
St. Catherine's, Meath Street ; the Very Rev. Dr. Dunne, 
President of Carlow College ; Rev. Dr. M'Manus, of St. 
Laurence O'Toole's Seminary, Harcourt Street ; and Rev. 
Mr. Beardwood. 

The Mass was proceeded with by the Archbishop, as far 
as the Gospel, and at this point his Grace took his seat on 
the faldstool, on the Epistle side. Cardinal Wiseman then 
quitted the throne, attended by his deacons, and kneeling 
before the high altar, prayed for a brief space. He then 
arose, and ascended a dais, which was erected in the 
centre, just at the junction of the nave and the chancel, 
in such a position that he could be seen and heard dis- 
tinctly by the vast multitude who filled to overflowing 
every portion of the church, and who were hushed into 
the deepest silence. His Eminence addressed the assem- 
blage as follows : — 



THE SERMON. 

" Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians ! Our heart is 
enlarged." — 2 Cor. vi. 11. 

Such, my brethren, are the words which naturally 
came to my lips on reflecting how, for the first 
time, they should open before you after many 
years' silence in this island. They refuse to address 
you in words that could savor even remotely of 
controversy, for I felt that I had to speak to a con- 
gregation of faithful people, in whom the true, 
sound, and orthodox faith was so deeply implanted 
as to require no words of encouragement from me. 
I felt that it must be presumption to address you 



THE SERMON. 19 

in words of instruction in the presence of an assem- 
bly of venerable bishops, each of whom is more 
worthy to teach than I, and who yet form a portion 
of those whom I am bound to address. No, my 
brethren, I felt it was only in words of congratula- 
tion — words of joy — words of exultation I could 
speak to you ; that I might associate myself with 
those deep, earnest, and most holy feelings which 
must pervade you on a day like this ; and that it 
was only because my heart would expand in the 
midst of you that I would even presume to speak 
to you. All I have seen around me — all that at 
this moment I see — serves but to expand and 
widen still more my heart, and to deepen within it 
those feelings which are common to us all, and 
which in their exuberance must needs overflow; 
and thus the heart being enlarged, the mouth must 
needs open, to become, as it were, the floodgate 
through which these feelings may be poured out, so 
as to mingle with yours. And then this our com- 
mon joy, like the waters which the prophet Ezechiel 
saw first collected in the temple, and then issue 
through its gates overflowing, will go forth from 
these more sacred precincts, a swelling flood, to 
mingle with the exultation of the multitudes 
outside. 

Therefore, my brethren, you will excuse me if in 
my address I say that which has been said to you a 
thousand times — if I repeat to you what your own 
feelings probably have already suggested. For 



20 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

when I see myself here^ in the centre of this splen- 
did edifice, it is not the beauty of its architecture, 
nor the solidity of its construction, nor the ampli- 
tude of its dimensions, which strike and move me. 
I can consider it but in one light — not merely as a 
magnificent temple — not merely as an evidence of 
the skill, or the taste, or the generosity with which 
it has been raised ; but it is to me only another 
monument of your faith — of that undying faith 
which is the portion of your country. It is upon 
this alone I can speak to you to-day. Whatever I 
may say, suggested by circumstances, will be simply 
to tell you how I feel, and, therefore, how I must 
express my thoughts upon that which forms the 
great glory of this land — its prerogative — its 
privilege from God, that unalterable and unfailing 
faith which has endured for ages, which is prouder 
now than it has been at any previous period, and 
Avhich will, I trust, go on forever, manifesting itself 
even with greater magnificence than it has done in 
oiu' days. 

If every country and every nation has received 
vspecial blessings from God, it would be superfluous 
to tell you that the one which distinguishes this land 
to every one who visits you — that which marks 
3'ou in history, and will give its peculiar character- 
istic to the narrative of events in this your Island 
of Saints — is the wonderful ffift of a livino^ and 
lively faith, to which tests have been applied, such 
as it has never pleased God to subject any other 



THE SERMON. 21 

nation to. The course of Divine Providence has 
generally been that persecution should assail an 
infant church. We are told that the young plant 
requires the watering of the gardener that it may 
take a deep root in order to sj^ring high ; and we 
know well with wdiat it is that God has watered, in 
almost every country, the infant church. We know 
it is the general law that the seed of faith should 
be cast in sorrow, in order that its sheaves may be 
borne in joy. Often the apostle himself dropped 
into his own furrow and fertilized it, but the sprin- 
kling of tears, mingled generally with blood, was the 
rule whereby God gave the first birth, and then 
increase to His church, wdierever through the min- 
istry of man he planted it. Here this order of 
Providence may be said, to a great extent, to have 
been reversed. It seems as if there had been some- 
thing pure and even congenial in the very soil, 
which opened itself and received gladly the seed 
of life, and made it produce one hundred fold ; so 
that the life of one great and holy Apostle sufficed 
to see the entire land Catholic. It was because 
here almighty wisdom wished to give evidence of 
the power of God and of His Providence with His 
church — to show how faith could endure the trials 
of centuries — not that sharp tribulation of the 
sword, which raises the courage of men, and makes 
even their natural feelings come in to aid the 
instincts and dictates of faith and of grace ; but 
that slow and wearying action which tires out the 



22 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

patience of raen^ and seems almost to wear out also 
the action of grace, and to complete the proof in 
one land that there was no trial to which the faith 
could be exposed which it was not powerful enough 
to conquer. 

And this has been the trial which, if viewed by 
merely human eyes, gives us the strongest evidence 
that this faith is divine, that its energy is celestial, 
and that its gift is of God. If it had been but a 
human institution or principle, it must long since 
have yielded. All which it has resisted and over- 
come proves to demonstration that the finger of 
God has been instrumental in this long preserva- 
tion, and His eye wonderfully watching over that 
which was His own. 

My brethren, take the first and simplest test of 
the power of human opinion. In the moral as in 
the physical world, bodies act reciprocally in pro- 
portion to their masses; but we know well what 
must overcome. The earth curves according^ to its 
own will the direction of its satellite, and then, 
after making it revolve round its own great orbit, 
obedient in its turn with the rest of the planetary 
system, it yields to the attractive force of the huge 
mass which dominates over it. It is the same with 
those bodies on Avhich moral action is exercised. 
The peculiarity of the social state in this country 
has divided the population into two distinct classes. 
I am not going for a moment to dwell upon the 
political or social character or upon the causes or 



THE SERMON. 23 

consequences of this state. I assume the fact as it 
is, and I ask jou to put side by side these two 
bodies, acting, necessarily, the one upon the other, 
in this as in every other country. Throw upon one 
side wealth, nobility, and worldly position, the influ- 
ence of superior education of the highest class, 
literature, science, and w^hatever belongs to those 
w^ho command, according to this world. Cast into 
the other scale poverty and miserj^, the absence 
almost for ages of the power of culture, the de- 
pendence totally for all that is necessary in this life, 
for daily food itself, upon those who belong to the 
other class. See these two bodies acting for cen- 
turies reciprocally upon one another. Suppose it 
to be a matter of mere human opinion, human prin- 
ciple, science, or of that knowledge of every sort 
that distinguishes them, and judge if it is possible 
that for hundreds of years that which is so much 
greater, more powerful, and more wise in the eyes 
of the world ought not to have crumbled and 
crushed under itself that which was absolutely sub- 
ject to it, and lying under its feet, and reduced it 
into a homogeneous mass ; and breaking down the 
barriers of opinion that separated the two, have 
made them in this become but one. 

I ask you not merely to solve this problem in 
theory, but to solve it in practice ; and to do that, go 
to the neighboring island wdiere God has cast my 
own lot, and see what has been the result of a simi- 
lar condition of things. At the period when first 



24 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

religious differences began in that country, we know 
that the mass of the people were attached most 
deeply to the religion of their forefathers. They 
made pilgrimages of grace, as they were called — 
they rose, again and again, in insurrection, to pre- 
vent that change of religion which was attempted 
to be introduced amongst them, and they were 
crushed. Their efforts were stifled, and wiiat was 
the result ? A few years of superiority in one class 
which monopolized all earthly advantages wore 
away the patient resistance of those w^ho would not 
otherwise have altered their faith, until at length 
districts which once were most fervent and most 
zealously Catholic hardly heard that name amongst 
them, and scarcely a trace was left, in the feelings 
and traditions of the people, of the former exist- 
ence of the Catholic Church amongst them. What 
has caused this difference ? How is it that there it 
has been easy to sweep away, and that without any 
great destruction of outward and visible securities, 
the whole fabric of the faith, leaving notliing, not 
even the least vestige of a name, to mark a tradi- 
tionary remembrance of the old faith and holy 
thoughts of the people ? I cannot see any differ- 
ence except in this, that there was a heavenly 
power exercised here — that the whole of this trial 
was permitted by God for a great and special pur- 
pose. I cannot see but this difference, that it 
pleased God by one of those dispensations, which 
we must not endeavor to j)enetrate, to allow 



THE SERMON. 25 

religion there to take, perhaps, a nobler and more 
magnificent hold upon the surface of the land, 
demonstrating itself by more splendid edifices, by 
more noble endowments of universities, and col- 
leges, and hospitals ; whilst here he made its roots 
strike deep into the very soil, and so take possession 
of the soil, that it was impossible to ever uproot it. 
You know, and I need not tell you, how tremen- 
dous were those cruel acts whereby property was 
either confiscated or destroyed, and the inhabitants 
of whole districts were swept away, with a view, if 
possible, to remove the Catholic population, and 
with them take away the faith from the land. But, 
notwithstanding all this, the faith still survives. 
For, my dear brethren, they could not tear away 
the name of the saint from the cairn upon the rock 
or the mountain to which he had immortally 
attached it. They could not destroy that venera- 
tion for the holy places to which pilgrims went in 
their joy or in their sorrow, nor make them lose the 
remembrance of the saint who had imparted holi- 
ness to their valleys. They could not make your 
sacred walls and hallowed fountains cease to yield 
their precious streams, or lose the gifts which en- 
deared them to the devotion of the nation. And 
more, they could not turn the hearts of the people 
from the rifled monuments of the piety of their ' 
fathers, their venerable roofless churches, under the 
shade of whose walls lie buried the bones of their 
Catholic ancestors, nor from those holy monasteries 
3 



26 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

which, if they no longer shelter learning, at least 
preserve in their history all that was precious, of 
those who have been faithful to that same religion, 
No, they could not take away from the land such 
monuments and such traditions. They could not 
even, in altering the language of the people, pluck 
from their tongues the sweet names which asso- 
ciated, not only with venerable monasteries, but 
with countless fields and valleys, signifying that 
some church or holy edifice had once stood, or some 
jDious servant of God had once dwelt there. The 
land was sanctified throughout, and that faith spoke 
out not alone, as the prophet says, from " the stones 
in the walls," but from the very rocks and valleys 
of the land ; and no power of man, no influence of 
class, could remove it from the foundation which it 
had in the very soil, as well as in the hearts of the 
people of this country. I know what those will 
say who smile at all such ideas, and think that I 
am speaking with prejudiced warmth and enthu- 
siasm about what by them is regarded as an evil. 
They will say, " Yes, the Catholic religion has ta- 
ken deep root in Ireland, as a weed would do, 
which it is difficult, by any cultivation, to pluck up 
and eradicate." But I, my brethren, accept that 
simile, and bless God that it is so, and I will say 
why. There is not a plant, however precious and 
valuable to man, which is not somewhere the in- 
digenous growth of the land. There is not a grain 
which you cultivate in your fields — not a tree that 



THE SERMON. 27: 

blossoms in your orchards — not a flower that 
blooms and yields sweet odor in your gardens, 
which somewhere does not belong to the soil, and 
can no more be eradicated thence, than the brier or 
the thistle from its native place. Such I believe to 
be faith in this country. It is the true growth of 
the soil itself; and beautiful indeed, as the most 
fair and lovely flower of the garden — graceful as 
the rose of Jericho, sweet as the lily of the valley, 
stately as the cedar on Libanus, fruitful as the grain 
which, in the steppes of Tartary, is to be gathered 
ripe, and uncut by the sickle, rich as the clustering 
grapes of the vines of Engaddi, where they grow 
amid the ordinary productions of the soil; and 
where, unlike those in the gardens of Judea, they 
need not to be j)lanted or pruned. As indigenous 
as any of these — as fruitful and as beautiful the 
Catholic faith is the growth of this land ; and not 
only, therefore, do I accept the simile, but I thank 
God that it is so — for again I say, it cannot be 
rooted out. 0, no, it shall not be rooted out. 
My dear brethren, that God who has watched for so 
many hundred years over His faith in this land — 
never sviil He allow His work of ages to be made 
void by the policy, by the learning, by the astute- 
ness of man ; but that which He Himself has 
planted shall grow, and strengthen, and become 
more powerful, and shall send forth its branches, as 
it is doing, to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
The emigrants will carry this holy faith beyond the 



28 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

waters to the farthest islands of the sea. The mis- 
sionary will go rejoicing in his work, and bearing 
the glad tidings of God and of salvation to the 
savages of distant shores; and the faith planted 
here, after it has struck such deep root, and after it 
has withstood the storms which have so long raged 
over it in its native land, will fill islands and conti- 
nents with the blessings which it has here bestowed 
upon those who surround me. 

Or, my dear brethren, I will rather compare it to 
another of the gifts of God, suggested by this 
thought. There are lands, as we all know, in which 
the Almighty has so scattered gold, that it is every 
where to be found. It is to be picked up in large 
masses on the mountain sides, or dug out where 
deep in the bowels of the earth, or it is to be 
gathered from the sands of the torrent or the 
desert ; but every where it is to be found mingled 
with the soil. Now, such is the faith of Ireland. 
Throughout the length and the breadth of the land 
it is present to us in a fair and alluring form. It is 
mingled with the entire soil, and is to be found in 
the sands of your sacred streams and holy springs. 
It is to be discovered pervading every retreat in 
which the hermit has once lived, or in the desolate 
valley in which the saint has died. Every where 
this pure gold of faith is to be found. 0, treasure 
it well, remembering that the smallest fragment of 
it is more valuable than all the riches that earth 
can give. It is a treasure which cannot be con- 



THE SERMON. 29 

Slimed on earth, and which reserves the fulness of 
its blessings for heaven. 

But, my brethren, the field in this world in which 
God has treasured this precious seed of faith is the 
soul of man. There He has laid it deep, and there 
it has been closely watched and nourished in Ire- 
land, imtil at length its fruits are becoming mani- 
fest as to-day in all that now surrounds us. Ke- 
ligion presents two distinct aspects. The one is 
that which is purely interior — that faith, that hope, 
that love which are in the Christian — those holy 
thoughts, those sweet graces and converses with 
God, those sacramental influences which fill and 
nourish the soul — all these form the true sub- 
stance of religion. But it has also its outward as- 
pect ', and when the two are united for a period of 
years, not only do those things, which are external 
and visible, become subsidiary to faith, supporting 
and encouraging it, and assisting its growth — but 
perhaps they are attended also with this great risk, 
that the two become so nnited together that it is 
impossible even to impair the one without in- 
juring the other. It is as a tree aronnd which a 
more tender plant has entwined itself, weaving its 
branches with those of the supporting stem, clothing 
and adorning it in return with its leaves, its blos- 
soms, and its fruit, the fibres of the roots growing 
closely interlaced together Attempt to cut down 
at last the one plant which gives nothing but 
strength and support, and the danger is, that you 
3* 



30 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

will not only injure but perhaps totally destroy 
that which it sustains. And so, although religion 
consists pure and undefiled in that which is within, 
in all the virtues to which it gives birth, and in all 
the beauty with which it adorns life, yet it has 
pleased the providence of God that His Church 
should become so associated with outward appear- 
ances, giving support and often glory, that it is 
difficult to assail the one without injuring the other. 
The very name of Church has acquired a double 
signification for the exterior building in which the 
solemn rites are performed, connected with the 
faith which is professed by those who worship 
therein ; and the destruction of the outward church 
seems almost necessarily to imply some diminution 
or some weakening at least of the inward forces of 
that Church which dies not. At least there are 
numbers, even of those who are faithful, of those 
who believe, whose faith is much sustained by the 
outward ministrations which God has provided. 
It is difficult to imagine a church persevering in 
its fervor when the visits of its priests are fraught 
with danger — when months and almost years may 
elapse before the faithful can receive the consola- 
tions of religion, or the food which God gives to 
His Church by the agency of its ministers. When 
that constant watchfulness of the pastors who have 
their flocks constantly imder their eyes is with- 
drawn — when the shepherd is struck — the sheep 
become scattered : and it is certain that the loss of 



THE SERMON. 3l 

spiritual ministrations to the wants of the people — 
of spiritual assistance to the poor — of the means 
of maintaining places for their education, or for 
their comfort in illness — weakens to a great ex- 
tent the power of religion. And if these are in 
the hands of others who use them for the opposite 
purpose of perverting and alluring away from the 
truth, then there is indeed danger that many in 
the Church may fall away. 

But in another respect, your country stands 
alone in the dispensations of Providence, in dealing 
with the Church at least in Europe. Notwith- 
standing all that was done to destroy the Church 
of God in this land, He, in His mercy, maintained 
inviolable the succession of its pastors, and gave 
an unbroken chain from its great Apostle to this 
hour, and thus made a firm and strong bond, to 
which were attached all the other graces and bless- 
ings that religion can give. This was, indeed, His 
greatest crowning act of love — one that showeth 
He would not be angry forever, and which proved 
that He was striking with the rod of the father, 
and not with the axe of the judge — that if He 
seemed to withhold the hand of mercy. He did not 
hold forth that of justice. But what became of 
religion — where were its noble churches and splen- 
did monastic institutions ? They were either swept 
from the land or reduced to ruin, or transformed 
into strongholds of animosity, and made the places 
from which have since come forth efforts to destroy, 



32 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

if possible, the faith. Why, my brethren, if there 
remained — I will not say a splendid cathedral, but 
a church like the one in which we are now assem- 
bled — preserved from the olden time for Catholic 
worship, I believe that, notwithstanding the stabili- 
ty of its structure, the very stones would be kissed 
away by the lips of pilgrims. The worship of God 
and the ministrations of its superior pastors in their 
vesture of holiness, as you have witnessed to-day, 
was a sight which, by your fathers in the last three 
centuries, would not have been dreamt of as possi- 
ble, and the constant dedication of churches like 
this in every part of the country is a sign of the 
faith which they might have believed was possibly 
reserved for some centuries hence. To wdiat a 
condition, then, were things reduced ! It would 
appear that the best symbol of the Church, as it 
was for a long time in this country, is exactly one 
of those ancient churches I have described, from 
which every buttress has been plucked away, the 
roof stripped off, the altar overthrown, the niches 
plundered, and the walls defaced, and well nigh 
ruined ; but in the mean time all this had not been 
able to wipe away that sacredness of consecration 
which they had received, nor to draw away the 
affection of the people ; for it yet remained a con- 
secrated ground for them. Imagine, now, a con- 
gregation assembled in such a place, worshipping 
God according to the religion of their fathers, and 
then let us figure to ourselves that God should do 



THE SERMON. 33 

habitually for it what He did for the B. Peter of 
Alcantara, when he took shelter in a dilapidated 
house, and God sustained with His hand the storm 
of snow that was threatening to overwhelm him, 
and kept it suspended over his head like a trans- 
parent and graceful roof, beyond the architect's skill, 
so that what of itself was the emblem of cold and 
poverty became at once a warm and genial shelter, 
and yet allowed the cheering light to come softened 
through it upon those below. 

Now, similar to this w^as the Providence of God 
with your fathers. It was from the very pitiless 
bleakness of the storm which long afflicted their 
Church that He wrought the security against the 
evil powers that sent it, and He, " qui dot nivem sicut 
lanaml' wove from its very missiles the warm shel- 
ter of their piety ; and it was through all this ap- 
parently oppressive and heartless storm that the 
mild rays of faith streamed through and brightened 
the hearts of all that were there assembled. And 
then, when it cleared away, the sun was shining 
brightly, it had risen in its beauty, and it is mount- 
ing towards its meridian now. No doubt the won- 
derful Providence of God made use of the very spo- 
liation and poverty of the Church here as the means 
of guarding it from the seductions of the world. 

0, my brethren, it is this that forms the real 
wonder of the existence of the Church now so 
flourishing in this land. It is, that notwithstanding 
the destruction of what would appear the natural 



34 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

and visible support and sustainment of the faith, 
notwithstanding the sweeping away in a short time 
of that w^hich was considered, from the usage and 
enjoyment of ages, to have become a part of re- 
ligion ; still the faith maintained itself unshaken - 
and unaltered. And why ? Because, not merely 
had it taken root in the soil to the depths of the 
foundations of its holy places, but deeper far in the 
hearts, in the consciences, in the souls of the peo- 
ple, even to a depth that all the influence of the 
earth could not reach. 

Now, my dear brethren, I have dw^elt long upon 
the past trials of our faith in this country. I have 
spoken of things which belong rather to genera- 
tions now gathered to their fathers than to you; 
for you live in an age of promise, in an age of 
hope, and yet you, almost every one who listens 
to me, have witnessed perhaps the most severe and 
terrible of all the trials to which that Church has 
ever been exposed in this country. I have de- 
scribed two trials. One consisted in the destruction 
of worldly prosperity and the reduction of the 
great bulk of those who professed the Catholic faith 
to a state of abject misery ; the other in that over- 
whelming persecution which threatened to destroy, 
and which, as far as its influence went, tried to anni- 
hilate the Church itself, by depriving her children 
of spiritual succor. The one reminds me of those 
messengers who rushed to Job to tell him that the 
Sabeans had come from one side and the Chaldeans 



THE SERMON. 35 

from another, and destroyed his fields, swept away 
his herds, killed the herdsmen, and left him a poor 
and wretched man. The second brings before me 
that still more terrible trial which went sorely to 
his heart, w^hen the children of his house were 
gathered together in the home of their elder 
brother. 0, what was that home to all of us, the 
sons and daughters of the Church, but the home 
of our elder Brother, Christ Jesus, in which, like 
the children of Job, your forefathers were gathered 
to partake of his own banquet, when in a moment 
the four winds of heaven came contending, rival 
powers — religions of opposite and conflicting creeds 
— that blew from every side against that house, 
and it was cast down and made a heap of ruins, 
underneath which a certain number perished ? Nei- 
ther of these trials shook for a moment the faith, 
or seemed, I may say, to disturb that deep-rooted 
religion which existed in the hearts of the people ; 
but the Evil One knew that he could inflict another 
trial still. " Skin for skin," he said, '^ and all that a 
man hath he will give for his life. But stretch 
forth thy hand, and touch their bone and their 
flesh, strike them with famine — strike them with 
pestilence — and see if they will not bless God 
and die." (Job ii. 4.) And the blight came, and 
the pestilence came, and the children of the land 
were laid low, and fathers and mothers wept over 
whole families whom the hand of death struck 
down before their eyes, and they mingled their 



36 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

tears with those of their pastors, who were them- 
selves despoiled by their own charity, and by the 
prevailing want of what was necessary to sustain 
their lives. Yet, blessed be God, under this awful, 
this unparalleled affliction, this great and truly 
patient people spoke not a foolish thing against 
their Maker, and sinned not with their lips. In 
unmurmuring, in patient suffering, they recognized 
in this affliction the hand of God. They saw in 
their deep misery but the chastising of children by 
their Father. They bowed their heads, and died 
as if they had been an army struck by the Angel 
of Death passing over them. They were buried 
in silence and in sorrow ; and those who survived 
went again to the holy work, blessing and praising 
God, without a murmur or complaint. And was 
not this final trial enough almost to have shaken 
in the hearts of the people that continued confi- 
dence in God, and to have made them think that 
they were hardly treated by their heavenly Fa- 
ther ? No ; like Job, they bore all, meek and 
unrepining : but yet the hardest trial was to come. 
For then it was, when the people were thus stricken 
almost with what looked to the world a leprosy — 
when nothing but sorrow and suffering seemed to 
be the inevitable lot of this country — then it was 
that the comforters came — then it was that men 
appointed from various religions in the three king- 
doms met together, and came with food in their 
wallets to tempt, and with money in their purses 



THE SERMON. 37 

to bribe, with lio:ht in their hands hke the cunnino- 

J CD O 

fowler only to mislead, and they sat on the ground 
around their victim ; for their comfort was reproach, 
and their consolation but rebuke. They pretended 
to have come in charity, to lighten the hand of 
God upon the people; but in truth their mission 
was to lay it as heavy as possible upon them, and 
make them believe, if it could be done, that their 
Almighty Father had abandoned them, or rather 
that they were — for these were almost the very 
words used — given up in their hunger and misery 
into their hands to relieve them, but only on con- 
dition of a sacrilegious apostasy. 

0, sad alternative, to betray the faith which for 
ages no trial had shaken, or to see their children 
starve to death before themselves ! This was the 
trial of trials — and by it was accomplished in the 
history of this people what was symbolized in the 
holy patriarch of old. Surely the patient and long 
suffering of this country will be rewarded, and 
there will come, like the friends of Job, those who 
will give their " sheep or their ear-rings " (Job xlii. 
11) to restore something of w^hat belonged to the 
poor sufferers of days gone by. 

Such is the faith as it appears to me in this 
country. Forgive me if, from the abundance of the 
heart, the mouth has spoken. I am unable to do 
more than this, to express those feelings which I 
may say are natural to me, but which have received 
such strength and enlargement since I came here 



38 CARDINAL Wiseman's toub in Ireland. 

amongst you. There now seems to be a bright 
dawn of a glorious future. It has been shrewdly 
remarked by a modern writer, that the darkest 
hour of the night is that which precedes the 
dawn ; and your darkest hour has past, and 
the dawn is coming. You have its harbinger 
in this church which speaks to you of what is 
going to be done, and what is being done, every 
where for the faith. Here this poor popula- 
tion have seen this edifice rise — not from the 
efforts of a few rich at a distance, but from the 
persevering exertions of themselves. They have 
the satisfaction of knowing that this church, after 
God, is their own ; nay, indeed, it was their own, 
but since this morning God has taken it to Himself, 
and may He alone be Lord and Master here for 
ages to come. You have proof of this in these 
venerable prelates who have come to attend the 
solemnity — in many who have labored long for 
the love of God and the salvation of souls, and who 
are already veterans in His ministry, but gladly see 
around them disciples who, by the example they 
will receive, will carry the hierarchy forward to the 
end of the century; and around them is a race of 
zealous priests which cannot be extinguished, of 
men who are not to be left behind in what is called 
" the progress of the age," and who will show you 
(of which this very temple is proof) that there is 
nothino; that can be done for the honor of Go*"* 
intellectually, artistically, and scientifically, which 



THE SERMON. 89 

they are not ready to apply for the vindication of 
the faith and the advancement of religion. This, 
my dear brethren, is what, above all things, I now 
exhort you to ; let the faith be kept within you 
alive and fervent, come what may. If our calcula- 
tions prove false — if God is pleased to allow you 
to be more severely tried than your fathers, fear 
not ; stand the test of whatever earth can do in 
order to put to a further trial that faith which is in 
you. Your pastors wdll lead you ; these holy 
bishops will be ever in the van, and they will con- 
duct you certainly to victory, as they have done 
before. When this morning that procession of holy 
prelates entered here — when they passed within 
this arch of the sanctuary — what else was it but a 
triumphal arch which spoke to you of victory — of 
victory without anger and without pride — of vic- 
tory won by meekness and perseverance of faith — 
a victory which only shows they have learned the 
lessons taught by the Apostle, which they, in like 
manner, will hand down to their disciples? "Thou," 
says the Apostle to Timothy, " hast fully known my 
doctrine, my faith, long-suffering, love, and patience." 
(2 Tim. iii. 10.) Ay, these are the conquerors : faith, 
long-suffering, love, and patience. It was once, and 
only once, in history, that the gate of Jerusalem 
became an arch of triumph. Multitudes passed 
through it to mount the neighboring hill on which 
to sacrifice in honor of a victory. There were 
Roman centurions at the head of their troops ; 



40 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

there were horsemen with their banners, and 
infantry with their eagles ; there were magistrates 
and Hctors, and civil officers -, then there were 
priests and scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, and 
a vast multitude of men, Jews and Gentiles, and 
strangers from every country under the sun. But 
who was the triumiDhant conqueror who closed that 
procession as he passed beneath that arch ? It was 
•the smitten, and not the smiter — the reviled, and 
not the reviler — who in meekness, patience, and 
humility, ascended the capitol of the world, the 
Calvary on which he offered the most precious of 
all victims to achieve as well as commemorate the 
great victor}^ over death and hell. A likeness of 
this is the victory to which we must aspire — one 
which we must gain by our endurance in and for 
the faith — by our constant perseverance in it, in 
spite of what the powers of earth or hell may do 
against it. Let us prove that we are followers of 
that meek but mighty God, and as we imitate Him 
in His lowness, His mildness, and gentleness, we 
may be assured we shall resemble Him in His con- 
quest and glory. 

At the conclusion of this discourse, wliicli had been 
listened to throughout its delivery with the most profound 
attention, his Eminence was conducted back to the throne, 
and the Archbishop of Tuam continued the Mass. At 
the offertory, the choir clianted the Cibavit eos. The 
scene presented throughout the building at the period of 
the elevation of tlie Sacred Host — the union of all, Car- 
dinal, prelates, clergy, and people, alike prostrate, in silent 



ADDRESS FROM THE TOWN COMMISSIONERS. 41 

reverence, before the Holy of Holies — was a sight which 
none who witnessed will ever forget. The High Mass 
having concluded, the choir chanted the Te Deum, and 
the benediction of the most adorable Sacrament was 
given by the Archbishop. The choir chanted Latham's 
Tantum ergo. A procession was formed in the same order 
observed on entering the church, and the prelates and the 
clergy, with his Eminence, returned to the sacristy. 

In tlie course of a short time a deputation of the Town 
Commissioners was introduced, and the following Address 
from that body, on behalf of the inhabitants, was read by 
Dr. Burke and handed to his Eminence : — 

To his Eminence Nicholas Cardinal Wiseman, Lord 
Archbishop of Westminster, \ 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the inhabitants 
of Ballinasloe, dutiful and docile children of the Catholic 
Church, beg leave to approach your Eminence in a spirit 
of the most profound respect and veneration for your 
sacred character, and t6 assure your Eminence that we 
hail your arrival amongst us with the greatest joy. Under 
any circumstances the visit of a cardinal prince of the 
Eoman Church to our parish would demand an expression 
of our homage. In him we would recognize a chosen 
counsellor of the Sovereign Pontiff, a member of that 
august body by which the Vicar of Christ on earth is im- 
mediately surrounded and supported in the government 
of that unbounded kingdom of which we glory in being 
citizens. But to be honored with the presence of 5^our 
Eminence on such an occasion as the present — to have 
your Eminence amongst us taking a part in the consecra- 
tion of the church we have struggled to erect — to hear 
your Eminence within its walls — to see your Eminence 
associated in the impressive ceremonies by which it is 
dedicated to the honor of Almighty God, and its altar con- 
secrated to His worship — to see your Eminence so associ- 
ated with our own bishop, with the illustrious metropolitan 
of this province, and with the other most reverend prelates 
here assembled, this is, indeed, a privilege we could not 
4* 



42 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

have anticipated. The career of your Eminence is not 
unknown to us. We recognize in your Eminence one who 
has successfully explored every region of science, and has 
laid the collected treasures of your learning at the service 
of your holy religion — one whose chaste eloquence, meek, 
yet fervent zeal, have been employed by Divine Providence 
to win the erring to the paths of Catholic truth, to confirm 
the domestics of the faith in their attachment, and to 
revive and inflame the hereditary love of Catholics for 
their holy mother the Church. We are persuaded that to 
no one under God is the Church more indebted than to 
your Eminence for the brilliant victories she has achieved 
in our times over her adversaries. The peaceful triumphs, 
of which the gifted converts that have crowded to her 
sanctuary under the guidance of your Eminence, are the 
witnesses and trophies. Fitly, then, do we acknowledge our- 
selves unable to declare the full measure of our gratitude 
to your Eminence for your gracious compliance with the 
invitation of our bishop. We can, however, retain, though 
we cannot adequately express, the feelings of love and 
i^espect that commingle with our joy on tiiis memorable 
day. We shall treasure the memory of the happy event 
that has brought together for our advantage and to our 
honor the illustrious Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 
and so many of the learned, zealous, and beloved bishops 
of Ireland ; and most cordially do we wish your Eminence 
length of years to edify by your pious example, and con- 
tinue the bright polar star of the Church, and that when 
it shall please the Almighty will to remove your Eminence 
from the wide sphere of your usefulness, you will receive 
at His hand that crown of glory He lias promised to His 
faithful laborers in the vineyard. — Signed on behalf of 
the inhabitants. Dominick Burke, M.D. 



His Eminence in replying said : — That having 
already repeatedly expressed the feelings of delight 
that filled his very soul, and his gratitude for the 
enthusiastic welcome with which he had been 



ADDRESS FROM THE BISHOP AND CLERGY OF CLONFERT. 43 

greeted, he would not trespass on the meeting by 
a repetition of what he had already said — he 
would rather notice the singularly laudable exam- 
ple set by the inhabitants of Ballinasloe, in their 
persevering exertions, happily this day rewarded. 
Their church, beautiful, spacious, and grand as it is, 
is the work of their own hands, not the creation of 
some few rich, but of the people, all contributing 
to the construction of it by theu* sustained, cheer- 
fully-given donations. They possess it now such 
as to be not unworthy, rather as worthy as any 
thing human can be, of its Divine destination — 
the place of sacrifice to the true God. They would, 
no doubt, continue in the same praiseworthy career, 
so deserving of imitation even by others, and, 
having had the happiness of forming an acquaint- 
ance with them, he would not give up the hope 
that some day he should be informed that the tower 
of their church was finished, and be then again 
afforded an opportunity of meeting Catholics, to 
whom he could not but feel most attached and 
grateful. 

The Lord Bishop of Clonfert, attended by a large num- 
ber of clergy, presented liis Eminence with an Address on 
their own behalf. 

Address of the Bishop and Clergy of Clonfert to the Car- 
dinal Archbishop of Westminster. 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the bishop and 
clergy of Clonfert, approach your Eminence with profound 
sentiments of love and veneration to hail your auspicious 



44 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

coming, and to bid you a respectful and hearty welcome 
to the diocese which has this day the honor to receive you. 
We take leave to assure your Eminence that, in common 
with the Catholic world, we rejoice in the daily accruing 
proofs afforded by your zeal, your learning, and your piety, 
of the wisdom that inspired the illustrious Pontiff, now 
ruling supreme in God's kingdom on earth, to enroll your 
Eminence in the Sacred College. Prepared by a life of 
ecclesiastical training and study for the exalted place to 
which you have been called, your Eminence has been, 
moreover, peculiarly fitted for the apostolate of England 
by a mildness of character that recalls the memory of the 
sainted De Sales, and that, in the midst of provocation, has 
never for a moment been found defective, and a clearness 
of judgment that has enabled your Eminence to see the 
position taken in our day by the adversaries of religion, and 
to seize with the skill of a Bellarmine or a Bossuet on the 
points that can be most happily turned by the defenders 
of Catholic faith against the ever-shifting forms of error. 
The restoration to the Church in England of the normal 
condition of the hierarchy canonically governing under the 
supreme rule of the successor of St. Peter, has shown with 
what firmness and discretion your Eminence is endowed in 
the arrangement of affairs of the highest importance to the 
well-being of religion. The affection of the clergy and 
faithful Catholics of the diocese of Westminster vouches 
for the paternal care and the zealous solicitude of your 
episcopal government. When we remember how many of 
our countrymen are your Eminence's spiritual children, and 
how many priests of this very province labor under your 
Eminence in caring for the flocks of our Divine Master, 
we feel ourselves almost in the same relations with your 
Eminence as with an Irish bishop. We are proud, too, 
in the recollection that your Eminence loves our country 
as that of your family. But, most eminent Lord Cardinal, 
these are considerations common to us with all Catholics 
— at least, with all Irish Catholics. There are others that 
now more urgently demand expression. The diocese of 
Clonfert has been placed by your singular kindness under 
special obligations to your Eminence. The generous 
promptitude with which your Eminence acceded to the 



ADDRESS FROM THE BISHOP AND CLERGY OF CLONFERT. 45 

request that you would come and join us on this our day 
of joy, and the hearty cooperation given by your Emi- 
nence to our humble efforts on behalf of religion, whilst 
they thoroughly accord with your Eminence's well-known 
readiness to oblige, leave to us a debt of gratitude which 
we may acknowledge, but cannot discharge. We can 
only make this humble effort to thank your Eminence, 
and at the same time assure you that our most earnest 
prayers shall be perseveringly offered for your welfare." 



His Eminence replied to the address, and spoke 
to the following effect : — My Lord Bishop of 
Clonfert, although I cannot admit that I am at all 
entitled to the very great compliments contained 
in the valued address from your lordship and your 
venerable clergy, I shall so far accept them, as they 
tell me that whatever I have endeavored to do in 
the service of the Church has met with your and 
their approbation, as most assuredly what your 
lordship and your zealous clergy have done and 
are doing command my most hearty approval. I 
should naturally be willing to employ my humble 
faculties, such as they are, in the service of the 
Church of Ireland, for it was in Ireland I first 
learned the language in which I address you. For 
when I first came to Ireland a child I did not know 
a single word of the English language. It was in 
this country I acquired it. This country has a 
claim upon me to use it for the advancement of its 
religious interests. I have come here to do so on 
your invitation, my lord, for whom I entertain so 
sincere respect, and whom I will take leave to call 
my friend. Since it became known, my lord, that 



46 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

I had accepted your invitation^ I have been repeat- 
edly pressed to preach in other parts of Ireland; 
but I have steadily refused to go any where until I 
should have fulfilled the engagement I had, with 
great pleasure, made to your lordship. It was to 
comply with your request, my lord, I came to Ire- 
land, and it was, I conceived, my duty to come 
directly here to give whatever assistance I could 
render on the joyous occasion that has brought so 
many of the bishops of Ireland, so many of its 
venerable priests, and such countless multitudes of 
the Catholic people here together. I have received 
from you, my lord, and from your clergy, and from 
your people, such an enthusiastic welcome as that 
I cannot ever forget its warmth and its earnestness, 
nor the numbers that have given it to me. What- 
ever I expected from the pious veneration of the 
people of Ireland for those whom God has placed 
as bishops in His Church, and however prepared I 
was for sharing in the demonstration of the respect 
sure to be paid in Ireland to them, I did not, I 
could not, imagine such things as I have here wit- 
nessed, and have been the undeserving object of 
It is w^ell that there is one present who has re- 
mained purposely to attend at the sacred function 
now over, who will start to-morrow to bear the 
tidings of its joy to the Sovereign Pontiff himself 
Monsignor Talbot, who enjoys the confidence of 
the Holy Father, and who accompanies him in his 
moments of relaxation from his overwhelming 
occupations on the throne of St. Peter, is here, and 



ADDRESS OF THE CATHOLIC LAITY OP GALWAY. 47 

will assure you himself, my lord^ that he will glad- 
den the heart of the Holy Father by a recital of 
what he has seen and felt on this day and yester- 
day. He will tell his Holiness of the beautiful, 
massive, spacious church, dedicated to the honor of 
God, under the title of that glorious archangel 
whose protection hovers over the Vatican. He 
will tell his Holiness that nowhere, not even in the 
heart of Italy itself, could the love and veneration 
due to the Head of the Church be more powerfully 
manifested than it has been in Ballinasloe. He 
will tell his Holiness that the multitudes here as- 
sembled had but one thought, one heart, and that 
the thou2:ht and the heart were for the See of 
Peter, for Pope Pius the Ninth, and for those who, 
however fliintly, v/ere supposed to reflect some of 
the light that issues from that centre, and enlight- 
ens the Church of God. For myself, I can only 
feebly essay to tell my joy and my gratitude to 
your lordship and your clergy. 

The High Sheriff, together with a number of gentle- 
men of the County of Gal way, presented his Eminence 
with an address on behalf of the Catholic inhabitants of 
the County of Galway : — 

Address of the Catholic Laity to his Eminence Nicholas 
Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster. 

May IT PLEASE YOUR Eminence — We, the laity assem- 
bled to witness the consecration of the New Catholic 
Church, Balhnasloe, respectfully beg permission to tender 
our humble but hearty welcome to your Eminence on 



48 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND, 

your auspicious arrival amongst us. Interested as we are 
in all that redounds to the glory of God and to the ex- 
altation of His Church, we have long felt joy and pride 
in the high intellectual powers and the richly cultivated 
talent which have won for your Eminence a world-wide lit- 
erary reputation, which have been successfully exerted in 
the service of God and of our holy religion, and which 
have silenced the sophistry of Infidel Sciolists, who dared 
to maintain that faith was inimical to knowledge, and that 
science was irreconcilable with religion. Warmly at- 
tached as we are to the Holy See — that dear mother 
Church, for devotion to which our ancestors suffered exile 
and death, and we ourselves continue to endure a modi- 
fied persecution, we are rejoiced to do honor to the illus- 
trious Cardinal, by whose presence we are visibly remind- 
ed of the close connection of the Catholic Church in these 
islands with the centre of unity, the successor of Peter, 
the vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth ; remembering, too, 
that Irish blood flows in the veins of your Eminence, we 
venture almost to claim the great qualities of yoTir Emi- 
nence as in some degree our own ; and whilst we willingly 
receive you with all the reverence due to your exalted 
station, and with all the dutifulness of obedient spiritual 
children, we mingle with our welcome that familiar 
warmth and cordial enthusiasm with which we are wont 
to greet the coming of our own most distinguished kins- 
men in the flesh. 

Signed on behalf of the laity here assembled, 

Pierce Joyce, 
High Sheriff of the County Galway. 

His Eminence, in reply, said — I cannot ade- 
quately express the satisfaction I feel at receiving 
from the lay Catholics of this vast assembly, through 
the chief civil officer of the county of Galway, so 
strong an assurance of their approval of my en- 
deavors to promote the common cause of our com- 
mon religion. I am particularly grateful for that 



CARDINAL Wiseman's reply. 49 

part of your address^ Mr. Sheriff, in which you 
state that my presence is a visible sign of your 
close connection with the Apostolic See. I am not 
authorized to appear before you as its representa- 
tivCj nor can I assume such a character. Yet I am 
beyond what I can say, gratified that you, and the 
Catholics here assembled, are pleased to accept my 
visit as an occasion for testifying, in the solemn 
manner you have done, your well-known devotion 
to the See of Eome. I thank you most sincerely. 



Monsignor Talbot, being called upon, rose, and in a 
most feeling speech assured the assembly of his own grati- 
fication, and of the willing report which he should short- 
ly make to his Holiness of the warm proofs which he had 
witnessed of devotion to the Holy See at Ballinasloe. 

During these proceedings, large masses of the people 
crowded the open space in front of the church and 
thronged the streets branching from it, awaiting the ap- 
pearance of his Eminence on his return to the hotel. A 
passage was formed through which he might be enabled 
to proceed in tlie open carriage of the Bishop of Clonfert. 
On his appearance, attended by that prelate, he was hailed 
with deafening cheers, and waving of hats and handker- 
chiefs, which were repeated again and again long after he 
entered the hotel. At tliis period there could not have 
been less than from 20,000 to 25,000 persons assembled in 
the great square before the church and adjoining streets. 
The conduct of the people at every stage of the proceed- 
ing was most exemplary. 

In the middle of the great market place the carriage 
stopped, and the Cardinal addressed the immense multi- 
tude, who, on their knees, in perfect silence, received his 
blessing. 

The collection which was made after the sermon real- 
ized a very large sum. 
5 



50 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

His Eminence was entertained at a dinner in tlie even- 
ing, at which all the bishops and a large number of clergy 
and some gentry were present. 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. 

The impressive and memorable proceedings in Balli- 
nasloe, on Tuesday and Wednesday, were brought to a 
termination last evening, when his Eminence was enter- 
tained at a grand banquet. Upwards of 150 prelates and 
clergy sat down. The utmost enthusiasm and the strong- 
est desire to do honor to the distinguished guest were 
manifested by all present. 

The Lord Bishop of Clonfert presided. 

The cloth having been removed and grace said, 
The Right Rev. Dr. Derry rose and proposed the health 
of the Sovereign Pontiff, Pope Pius the Ninth. His lord- 
ship observed that on such an occasion, and in such an 
assembly, their first homage vfas due to tlie head of the 
Church. It was only necessary to make the announce- 
ment, and he was sure they Avould enthusiastically per- 
form that duty. His lordship would not present for their 
admiration and filial reverence the personal virtues so 
happily characteristic of the reigning Pontiff; neither 
would he make more than a passing, though assuredly a 
most sincerely grateful, mention of tlie special obligations 
of Catholic Ireland to his Hohness. In the days of its 
agony, the common father of the faithful seemed to con- 
centrate all his solicitude on our sorely-tried Church ; 
having, alas ! at that very time, much tliat was trying to 
his soul to endure in his own dominions, his Holiness con- 
tinued to fix his loving regard on this famine-stricken 
land, and hastened to its relief. But these things are so 
well known that the grateful memory of Irish Catholics 
readily anticipates a reference to them. His (the Bishop 
of Clonfert's) own elevation to the episcopate, amongst 
the very first raised by the Holy Father to that dignity in 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. 51 

Ireland, of course had impressed him with special feelings 
of duty and gratitude to his Holiness that cannot be a 
consideration for his lordship to offer to others, however 
deeply fixed in his own soul it must ever remain. His 
lordship would rather propose to those illustrious and most 
reverend personages present, to tlie clergy he had the 
happiness of seeing around, and to his lay friends liere, 
dibtmguished as they are by their loyalty to the Catholic 
Church — his lordship would rather propose to this great 
assembly Pope Pius the Ninth in the great absorbing 
character of the spiritual sovereign, to whom we all alike 
owe unqualified religious obedience in the character of the 
head of the Catholic Church, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on 
earth. He then gave, — 

'' The long life, health, and happiness of our Most Holy 
Father the Pope." 

The Hon. and Right Rev. Monsignor Talbot, on rising 
to acknowledge this toast, said he should first disclaim the 
notion of being deemed worthy to speak the feeling of the 
Holy Father. He had the honor, however, of knowing, 
personally, and, in the familiar intercourse it was his high 
privilege to be admitted to by the Sovereign Pontiff, with 
what loving interest his Holiness regarded the Catholics 
of Ireland. He would not fail to state to his Holiness, 
immediately on his return to the Eternal City, for which 
he was to start next morning, with what bounding enthu- 
siasm the bishops and clergy here assembled, and, if pos- 
sible, with what still greater enthusiasm the faithful, 
warm-hearted lay children of the Churcli manifested on 
this glorious day their love for his Holiness and their 
devotion to the See of St. Peter. For himself he could 
say, that the events of the day would never be effaced 
fi'om his memory ; that the earnest, glowing piety of the 
Catholics of Ballinasloe, and of the countless multitudes 
that thronged into it to share in the religious joys and get 
the blessing of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 
— that their fervor, and their sincerity, their orderly con- 
duct, and their affectionate attacln-nent to their pastors 
had opened to him new views of Catholic society. Though 
of an Irish family, he had not been in Ireland for upwards 



52 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of twenty years ; lie heartily regretted that such was the 
case, for every year was a year of loss. It was not until 
he came, on the kind invitation of their bishop, to be 
present at the consecration of the noble church in which 
they had spent so edifying a day, that he could form any 
idea of the glorious union between the people of Ireland 
and their clergy, — of the unexcelled, if ever rivalled, 
devotion of all — people, priests, and bishops — to the 
Sovereign Pontiff. He was happy that he had remained 
in Ireland purposely to be present on the anspicious occa- 
sion that bronght the vast multitude together, and that 
enabled him to touch, as with his hands, the one heart 
that throbbed in that mighty assembly. The report he 
would be most happy in making to his Holiness, in the 
course of a few days, would be most cheering to his pater- 
nal heart, and would be, he would venture to say, ac- 
cepted as a most agreeable tiibute from the ever-faithful 
Catholics of Ireland. 

His lordship again rose, and remarked that he need not 
preface the toast that he knew every one expected him to 
propose. It was well for him that he was anticipated by 
tlie knowledge they all had of his Eminence, and that 
their respect needed not to be evoked by any observations 
of his. The Catholic world was familiar with the life, the 
services, the virtues of the Cardinal Archbishop of West- 
minster. His Eminence was essentially an historic person- 
age of the nineteenth century. The Church of God is, 
after all, the kingdom whose history is the real history of 
the world, and in that history few of our day hold a more 
dignified place than Cardinal Wiseman. When some 
future Bossuet will write another universal history, and, 
placing himself in some lofty eminence of the Church, 
shall survey and sketch the vast field before him, un- 
doubtedly the illustrious man who has been with us to-day 
will be amongst the most prominent on the historic can- 
vas. His lordship, however, felt that whilst, on the one 
hand, these truths respecting his Eminence are perfectly 
well known to the most reverend prelates, to his lay 
friends, and to the clergy, they, on the other hand, too far 
transcended his powers of bringing them out in suitable 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. 53 

language. He would, tlierefore, refer the assembly to 
their own hearty appreciation of those qualities of emi- 
nence which combined so harmoniously with his rank in 
the Church to command their respect and admiration. 
He would rather look upon his Eminence in the relation 
in which he then stood to himself and to his diocese — a 
relation which he (Dr. Derry) could turn to with less 
misgivings, as to his manner of dealing with it, than with 
those attributes of his Eminence's character that have won 
the homage of the Catholic world, and have been signally 
recognized by the Sovereign Pontiff himself. He would, 
therefore, take leave to present his Eminence to them as 
a guest, who had, in the course of the day, brought the 
resources of his mighty mind and the richness of his elo- 
quence home to those who had come to share in their 
religious festivity, and to impart to it what all Catholics 
in Ireland will deem the charm of his presence. But even 
in this more humble endeavor to express his own feelings 
of gratitude and joy, his lordship could not proceed with- 
out at once becoming conscious of how far he must fall 
short of his own conception of the obligations he thus 
presumes to acknowledge. He (Dr. Derry) would, there- 
fore, ask his most reverend brethren and all his other 
friends to come to his relief, and compensate for his ina- 
bility, by drinking, in the way in which it was right it 
should be drunk, with all their heart and soul, — 

" The health of the illustrious Cardinal Wiseman, Arch- 
bishop of Westminster." 



The Cardinal, on rising to return thanks, would 
first observe that the kind and graceful manner in 
which the bishop had proposed his health as a guest 
relieved him of much of the difficulty he should 
have otherw^ise felt in acknowledging the great 
compliment he had just received. Indeed, every 
thing he had seen or had shared in since he came to 
Ireland, and especially since he- came to Ballinasloe, 
5* 



54 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

was so impressed with kindness, that the last mark 
of their respect, which he now desired to thank 
them for, could hardly surprise him. He should in 
frankness admit that what he witnessed, and what 
he had to be grateful for, far exceeded any expecta- 
tion he might have formed in England. He knew, 
indeed, what faith there w^as in this country, how 
devoted the inhabitants were to their religion, and 
how they inherited the love of their persecuted 
ancestors for the See of St. Peter. Yet, living in 
another country, where such scenes as had cheered 
and delighted them all these days past could not 
take place, he had formed no idea of the glowing- 
warmth and of the enthusiasm of the piety of those 
mighty masses of Irish Catholics whose cheers had 
scarce yet ceased. Looking back to the demonstra- 
tions of popular devotion to the Church, which so 
happily marked that festive day, he could scarcely 
think of them as realities ; he needed an effort to 
satisfy himself that what he saw was not a dream. 
He was not unprepared for finding a suitable church 
erected in the town to which he was invited by his 
friend the Bishop of Clonfert ; but here again his 
expectations were undeniably exceeded by the 
reality — a church that might well be said to be 
artistic in its design, solid in its structure, and spa- 
cious in its dimensions — a church admirably fitted 
for its sacred purposes, and bespeaking an expendi- 
ture such as many a rich city might not be willing 
to incur — an outlay of mental and bodily labor 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. B& 

that can be understood only by those who, like the 
Bishop of Clonfert, have had to deal with the dif- 
ficulties of such an undertaking. 

Here, then, again, said his Eminence, even my 
anticipations are short of the agreeable reality that 
I have been enjoying since my arrival. I believe I 
might naturally feel too much delight in such joy- 
ous manifestations as those I have just referred to, 
and I ought, perhaps, to look upon it as a salutary 
dispensation of Providence in my regard, that my 
allotted sphere of action is in a country where such 
external influences are rarely, if at all, felt. The 
sense of dutv, the voice of conscience — not the 
cheers of a warm-hearted religious multitude — 
must exclusively prompt to its performance or 
repay me. In the morning I go to the church, 
offer the holy sacrifice, address the worshippers, or go 
through some other function. I leave the church 
and return home without any external indication 
to show that deep interest in what has been done, 
such as in Ireland greets the Irish ecclesiastic at 
every stage of his missionary labors. It may be 
that sometimes a small knot of humble, yet cheer- 
ful members of the flock will group around the 
church door and smile their satisfaction, or perhaps 
even allow their gushing feelings to find vent in 
some relis^ious exclamations. But I never need 
inquire whence those sympathizing Catholics come. 
I know well they are from Ireland — mayhap from 
Ballinasloe or Galway, or Mullingar, but certainly 



56 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

from the country where the faith flourishes in all 
its primitive verdure and fruitfulness. Such scenes 
as these that buoy up the Irish priest and the Irish 
bishop are simple impossibilities with us, and it may 
be well for me that they are, for with my natural 
inclination to enjoy them, I might be exposed to 
the danger of partially, at least, allowing them to 
take too great a hold of me, and thereby to impair 
the disinterestedness of that sole principle of duty 
which must, as I am circumstanced, be on earth my 
motive and reward. But Irish ecclesiastics, with 
hearts as Avarm as those of their affectionate flocks, 
are not in any such danger. Their entire identifica- 
tion of temperament and feeling with those to wdiom 
they minister saves them from it, and long may 
that mutual warmth, acting and reacting, continue 
to inflame their zeal, and love, and devotedness to 
the Catholic Church. 

The Catholics of England are deeply interested 
in the continuance of that glorious union that char- 
acterizes the Irish nation — the union of its bishops, 
priests, and people. The fate of the Catholics of 
England may be said to depend on the Catholics of 
Ireland ; not, indeed, because these come and form 
congregations and churches in the cities and towns 
of England — not because wherever they settle in 
England congregations and churches are established. 
Important as these advantages are to a country in 
which the true religion had almost become extinct, 
it is in another sense I mean to say, that the fate of 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. 67 

English Catholics depends upon their brethren of 
the Catholic Church in Ireland. The dominant 
power in the state may afford to disregard the com- 
plaints and remonstrances against the injustices of 
which still the Catholics of both countries have too 
much cause to complain ; and vexatious obstacles 
to the free exercise of the Catholic religion may be 
maintained or introduced in despite of us English 
Catholics. But no party that may have the admin- 
istration of the affairs of the British empire can 
venture to treat with contemptuous disregard the 
just and united demands of the Catholic people and 
the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland. Let the priests 
of Ireland then act as they so well know how to 
act, earnestly, disinterestedly, and with fearless per- 
severance in resisting all encroachment on them, 
and in obtaining redress of the grievances Avhich 
relio-ion has still to contend with. It v/as indeed 
consoling and hopeful to see, in the course of last 
year, how the Catholics of both countries worked 
together with these views — to see the Irish mem- 
bers of Parliament and the Catholic peers of Eng- 
land united in demanding for their religion what, 
as citizens. Catholics are entitled to. It will be 
amongst the most pleasing of the impressions left 
by my visit to Ballinasloe, if it conduce to foster 
that spirit of union between the Catholics of both 
nations, subjects of the same sovereign, but still 
more closely allied as members of the same Church. 
The day now nearly spent is one to be "marked with 



58 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

a white stone ;" indeed, I shall never forget it. The 
incidents of it will continue on my memory fresh 
as at this moment, and forever shall I be grateful 
for the reception I have met with from my most 
reverend and right reverend brethren — from 
priests to whose deserts it is not necessary I should 
bear witness, for their power in word and work is 
to be seen in the virtues of their flocks — and from 
the vast multitudes whose welcome still rings in my 
ears; and, my Lord Bishop of Clonfert, I shall 
surely not forget my obligations to your lordship 
for having given me the opportunity for so much 
enjoyment. I was happy to have it in my power 
to oblige your lordship, whom I so much respect — 
whom I will call my friend ; but you, my lord, have 
reversed the obligation. I stand indebted to you, 
my lord, and can only repay your lordship with my 
abiding gratitude. 

His Lordship tlie Bishop of Clonfert proposed the health 
of the metropolitan the Archbishop of Tuam, who replied 
with his usual eloquence. 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman rose and said 
that he would now ask their lordships and that influ- 
ential assembly to drink the health of the bishop of 
the diocese. LLs lordship, Dr. Derry, was, indeed^ 
well known to them, as it was attested by the pres- 
ence of so many distinguished prelates, who came, 
at no doubt much personal inconvenience, from the 
remotest quarters of L^eland at his call, to rejoice 



GRAND BANQUET TO HIS EMINENCE. 59 

with him in the happy event of this day, as it was 
demonstrated by the presence not only of these 
venerable bishops, but by that of the High Sheriff 
and the Catholic gentry and people of this great 
county, as well as by the visible joy of all the 
priests to-day met in the beautiful church of St. 
Michael. This showed how sincerely his lordship 
was respected by all classes. His Eminence was 
satisfied that without further preface he might con- 
fidently ask them to drink the health of their host. 
I will not deny myself the pleasure, said his Emi- 
nence, of again saying that I am happy at having 
shared in his lordship's happiness to-day. His w^ork 
of anxiety has to-day received the blessings of God 
and of the Church. He will, no doubt, still con- 
tinue it ; but so much has been done, and all that 
has been done has been so well done, that his lord- 
ship's mind may henceforward be at ease about the 
accessories of the goodly structure. I need not say 
with what provident care and liberality his lordship 
has acted as our host. The scene of this evening 
within these doors in its way vies with the scale on 
which, in the church and in those crowded streets 
abroad, every thing has been carried on. His lord- 
ship's taste, fulness of heart, and hospitality, have 
to be acknowledged by all his guests. My lords 
and gentlemen, let us drink heartily the health 
of the Eight Kev. Dr. Derry, the Bishop of Clon- 
fert. 



60 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

His Lordship, on rising to return tlianks, was loudly 
cheered. He said that he would unaffectedly declare he 
was unable to thank his Eminence and his most reverend 
brethren, and his lay friends as well as the clergy, for all 
the kindness they had that day shown him. He must 
only throw himself on their indulgence for his imperfect 
utterance of the feelings of gratitude with which he was 
filled. To his Eminence above all he was indebted beyond 
his capacity to acknowledge. He (Dr. Dcrry) must have 
appeared to many to have acted boldly and presumptu- 
ously, when it became known that he had incited Cardinal 
Wiseman to preach in a country town in the west of Ire- 
land. But he (Dr. Derry) from the day he had the honor 
of being admitted to an acquaintance with his Eminence, 
was so struck by the good nature and affability of that 
illustrious prince of the Church, that he had not much 
misgiving about tlie fate of his request ; and if he could 
not show his Eminence the wealth or pomp of other 
places, lie knew he could present to him a body of clergy- 
men that would be invigorated and cheered by his Emi- 
nence's presence and blessing. He knew he could show 
liim tlie treasures of the Church in tlie multitudes of her 
faithful children, and he was confident his Eminence 
would be satisfied. His Eminence came on these terms, 
and tlicy had been kept. Tlie people had crowded round 
him to share in his blessing ; the priests had knelt before 
him and had been strengtliened ; and he (Dr. Derry) was 
happy, and surely he ought to thank his Eminence for all 
these benefits. 

The Bishop again rose and proposed " The Health of 
the Laity." 

The High Sheriff responded in eloquent terms. 

The company soon after separated. 

Athlone, Monday, the 30th. 

This day a higlily influential meeting of the Catholic 
clergy and principal inhabitants of St. Peter's and St. 
Mary's parishes was held in tliis town, for the purpose of 
vothig an address to Cardinal Wiseman, on liis return this 



ATHLONE. 61 

day from the west, on his way to the residence of John 
Eiiiiis, E^q., M.P., at Ballinahonn. Patrick Rourke, Esq., 
J. P., was called to the chair; William Kelly, Esq., solici- 
tor, acted as secretary. The following gentlemen — the 
Yen. Archdeacon O'Reilly, P.P. ; the Rev. Mr. Dardis, 
CO.; William O'Connell, M.D., and the secretary — 
having been appointed a committee, drew up the follow- 
ing address, which, having been read, was unanimously 
adopted : — 

To the Most Blustrious and Most Rev. his E77iinence Car- 
dinal Wiseman^ Lord Archbishop of Westminster. 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the inhabitants 
of Athlone, beg to offer to your Eminence, on this your 
first appearance amongst us, a true Irish welcome. To 
the real nature of this welcome your Eminence cannot 
now be a stranger. We behold in you the distinguished 
scholar who has laid science and the " Vvdsdom of the 
world" under tribute to revelation, and who has, as it 
were, wrested the weapon from the foeman's hand, and 
planted it as a pillar beneath the Church he assailed ; we 
behold in you the champion of our faith, wlio in the hour 
of danger stood most firm and yielded not ; we cannot, 
therefore, but take a pride in the learning which once 
made our own old Church illustrious ; we cannot but 
revere the constancy which won for it merit, and we trust 
perpetuity, particularly as those high gifts of blessing and 
of grace have been bestowed on one of our own race and 
blood. Accept, then, the respectful homage of the inhab- 
itants of Athlone, which we present to you as a prince and 
defender of the Church, and we flatter ourselves that the 
homage we pay to you, and through you to our Holy Father, 
will not be unacceptable ; for it is meet, indeed, that the 
members of the most tried and faithful Church in Chris- 
tendom should duly honor the greatest and most exalted 
dignitaries in the world. — Signed on behalf of the inhab- 
itants at public meeting assembled, 

P. RouRKE, J. P., Chairman T.C., Chairman. 

William Kelly, Solicitor, Secretary. 
6 



V 

62 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

As it had been ascertained that his Eminence Cardinal 
Wiseman would arrive in town on Monday, vast crowds 
poured in from the counties of Westmeath, Longford, and 
Roscommon, and the approaches to the terminus vv^ere 
blocked up by anxious thousands, and the platform was 
filled by a number of ladies and gentlemen, anxious to 
receive the blessing of his Eminence, or to sec one whose 
name is so intimately identified with the struggle for 
religious freedom and the spread of Clmstian truth in the 
sister country. On the arrival of the up-train from Gal- 
way, conveying his Eminence from Kilcornan, the resi- 
dence of Sir T. N. Redington, the cheering from the 
persons on the platform was taken up by the vast assem- 
blage outside, and when his Eminence left the train, the 
cheering became most vehement and enthusiastic. He 
was received by the Bishops of Elphin and Ardagh, who 
conducted him to the waiting room, where the address 
from the Town Commissioners, on the part of the inhab- 
itants, the address of the clergy, and the address of the 
Catholic Young Men's Society, were read, to which his 
Eminence returned suitable replies, in which he graciously 
acknowledged the compliment paid to him, and expressed 
the liveliest interest and solicitude for the spiritual and 
temporal welfare of those who had joined in the warm and 
enthusiastic tribute of respect. The carriage of Mr. John 
Ennis, M.P., was in readiness to convey his Eminence to 
Ballinahoun House, where his Eminence remained on a 
visit up to Wednesday morning. As the carriage moved 
slowly through the masses of persons who had congregated 
in the streets, the enthusiasm of the people knew no bounds. 
From time to time the carriage had to stop in consequence 
of the roadway being blocked up by the crowds anxious 
to obtain the benediction of his Eminence, who was much 
aiTected by the generous feeling of welcome and respect 
which was manifested towards him. His Eminence was 
accompanied by the Rev. E. L. Clifford, the Rev. Mr. 
Burke, Mr. Wiseman, and J. Ennis, Esq., M.P. After a 
drive of nearly five miles, his Eminence arrived at the. 
demesne of Ballinahoun House, where the tenantiw of 
Mr. Ennis were assembled, and gave his Eminence a most 



ATHLONE. 63 

cordial reception as the carriages occupied by his Eminence 
and suite drove through the grounds leading to the prin- 
cipal entrance. A distinguished party was invited to 
meet his Eminence at dinner. On Tuesday morning his 
Eminence set out for a visit to Birr, a distance of nearly 
sixteen miles. He was accompanied by his host, the Rev. 
Messrs. Burke and Farrel, Westland Row ; Mr. Wiseman, 
Mr. Errington, and Mr. J. E. Wallis. His Eminence was 
induced to take the long drive to Birr by his anxiety to 
inspect the celebrated telescope erected by Lord Rosse, and 
to visit the schools and convent, previously known to him, 
of the Sisters of Mercy. The roads along which his Emi- 
nence proceeded were lined by hundreds of the country 
people, who asked his blessing as he passed. In all cases 
where the request was made, his Eminence gave his bene- 
diction, and nothing could be more edifying than the joy 
evinced by the people on receiving it ; and in several 
instances children were presented to him by their mothers, 
and the sick were brought forth to receive his blessing. 

The town presented a scene of much enthusiasm and 
excitement ; and although it was harvest time, the place 
was crowded by thousands of all classes, anxious to pay 
a tribute of respect to his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, 
who arrived shortly before four o'clock, from Ballinahoun 
House. After partaking of luncheon his Eminence, and 
the gentlemen who accompanied him, proceeded to the 
beautiful Catholic church, which was crowded to the 
doors. The Rev. Mr. Egan conducted his Eminence 
witliin the rails of the sanctuary, when an address was read 
from the inhabitants, in which was conveyed their deep 
sense of gratification at his Eminence's appearing amongst 
them, and the expression of their affectionate veneration 
for him as a prince of the Church, and the uncompromis- 
ing defender of the faith. His Eminence returned a reply 
replete with eloquence and paternal tenderness. At its 
termination, he gave the vast assemblage his solemn bless- 
ing, as they devoutly knelt to receive it. The Cardinal 
then proceeded to the beautiful demesne of Lord Rosse, 
who was absent in London, and who, many years ago, 
had most courteously exhibited his new telescope, still 



64 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

vinfinished, as well as his smaller ones, to the Cardinal, 
then Bishop, and the guest of Mr. Bennett, of Thomas- 
town. However, the absence of the noble astronomer 
was compensated by the courtesy of his representative, 
wlio most obligingly had every tiling prepared so as to 
show to perfect advantage the mechanism of the splendid 
instrument, which is a national monument of the scien- 
tific attainments of Ireland, and of the ingenuity of its 
noble projector and constructor. On his Eminence's 
again appearing in the street, he was received with enthu- 
siastic cheering, and as he drove out of town on his way 
back to Ballinahoun House he was followed by an im- 
mense crov/d, who cheered him most vehemently as he 
went upon his way. 

As it had been ascertained here on Wednesday morn- 
ing that the Cardinal would start for Dublin, from the 
Moate station of the Midland Great Western Railway, 
crowds from all the surrounding districts poured in, for 
the purpose of showing him every mark of respect and 
veneration, and to do him honor as a prince of the Church 
and a representative of the Holy See. One can scarcely 
convey a notion of the joy and enthusiasm of the people, 
Vv'ho were dressed in their holiday attire ; and all work 
was suspended to enable them to pay their tribute of re- 
spect to the Cardinal. For five miles of road, along 
which his Eminence had to drive from Ballinahoun House 
to the railway, people were assembled in thousands, and 
as the carriages occupied by his Eminence and friends 
came up, the cheering was loud and general. In the 
town three triumphal arches, most tastefully designed, 
were erected. As his Eminence approached, the cheering 
of the people became deafening, and as his carriage pro- 
ceeded through the dense mass, men and women pressed 
round the vehicle, all appearing overjoyed at having an 
opportunity of testifying their love and veneration for a 
prince of the faith for v/hich they, as well as their fore- 
fathers, had suffered so much. It was a most exciting 
scene as liis Eminence approached the terminus. Not 
less than twenty thousand persons had assembled, and 
through those the carriage of his Eminence could make 



ATHLONE. ^5 

but very little progress. On arriving at the platform he 
was met by a number of clergymen and other gentlemen, 
who presented bim with the following address : — 

May it Please your Eminence, — We, the Clergy and 
laity of the parish of Kilcleagh, which you have so hon- 
ored by a visit, beg leave to approach your person with 
sentiments of the most profound respect, and to bid you, 
in the simple but earnest language of our country, " Cead 
mille failthe." It is a proud thing for us to see a prince 
of the Holy Roman Church tread the soil of our parish ; 
and tbis pride is enhanced by the consideration that in 
your Eminence's person we behold a prince who more 
than adequately sustains the oldest and noblest dignity in 
the world. It is a joyous day for us to see in the midst 
of us a prelate who has rendered such signal services to 
the old Church, which is so dear to us, intrinsically and 
extrinsically — intrinsically for the treasures it contains, 
and extrinsically for the costly sacrifices which our fore- 
fatliers made to uphold it. Passing over the services 
which you have rendered to the Church by your matchless 
lectures on controversy, and by your incessant preaching 
of the Avords of truth and life, you have silenced the falsi- 
fiers of history and the misinterpreters of science, by 
demonstrating to a convinced world that their theories 
were not a "joint " in the fitness of things, and that all 
the sciences, even in their present imperfectly developed 
state, serve to illustrate and confirm the principles of re- 
vealed religion. There is, however, another joy of ours 
which must find utterance ; it is this — that, though your 
birth and lot have been cast in other regions, you are of 
the pure old blood of this land. For these and many 
other reasons which we forbear to mention, we are full of 
pride and joy this day, and we hail, with rapturous delight, 
the opportunity which is thus so graciously afforded us of 
doing reverence to your sacred person, and of offering 
assurances of the liveliest devotion and gratitude. 

The train being obliged to start, his Eminence was com- 
pelled to forward his reply from Dublin, tliat evening, in 
writing. It was as follows : — 
6* 



66 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Eeverend Brethren and Friends — The shortness 
of time which I was able to pass at Moate, and the 
kindly pressure by which I was surrounded, did not 
permit me this morning to reply to the warm-heart- 
ed address presented to me, for the same reason, 
only in writing. But I seize on the first moment of 
leisure, after my arrival in Dublin, to thank you for 
the expressions of regard and affection which it 
contains, and to assure you that it will form an im- 
perishable record of what my eyes witnessed with 
sincere delight. The enthusiasm of your Irish 
hearts has been manifested by many tasteful deco- 
rations on my path, and on the very cottage wails, 
prepared to welcome my arrival amongst you, 
though only for a moment. Rapid as was my pas- 
sage through your ranks, my eye did not overlook 
any one of these affecting demonstrations of your 
Catholic feelings ; for I feel sure that these were 
the true spring of your affectionate expressions in 
speech and in writing. Long may endure that 
unanimity of sentiment which I witnessed this 
morning between priests and people, and abundant 
be the blessings which God will pour upon all, in 
reward for such hearty friendliness as I, though 
personally unworthy, have experienced from you. 

The vast multitude having knelt down, his Eminence 
gave them his solemn pontifical benediction, and, taking 
ins seat in the train, proceeded to Dublin, followed by the 
heartfelt prayers of the poor for his welfare and happiness. 
Great numbers assembled at the Mulhngar station as the 



ARRIVAL OF CARDINAL WISEMAN IN DUBLIN. 67 

train approaclied ; and his Eminence, seeing that the 
people were most anxious to pay their respects to him, 
came out of the carriage which he occupied, and gave his 
blessing to the kneeling crowd, after which the train pro- 
ceeded at a rapid pace to Dublin. 



DUBLIN. 

ARRIVAL OF HIS EMINENCE IN DUBLIN. 

His Eminence arrived in town on Wednesday, by train 
from Athlone, at twelve o'clock. He was accompanied 
by the Rev. Mr. Clifford, the Rev. Mr. Burke, Mr. Wise- 
man, and J. Ennis, Esq., M.P., D.L., chairman of the 
Midland Great Western Railway Company. On the ar- 
rival of the train at the terminus he was received by the 
principal officers of the company, who conducted him to 
the carriage which was in waiting to convey him to the 
Imperial Hotel. During the day a large number of the 
clergy and laity called to pay their respects to his Emi- 
nence. After partaking of some refreshment, he proceed- 
ed to take a drive in the suburbs, and when he returned 
to the hotel, large crowds were assembled to see him and 
to receive his blessing. Shortly before seven o'clock he 
proceeded to the grand banquet given by the Lord Mayor. 
His Eminence wore the undress costume of a cardinal. 
On appearing in the street he was hailed with loud cheer- 
ing by more than a thousand persons, who surrounded 
the principal entrance to the hotel. On arriving at the 
Mansion House, a considerable crowd had collected in the 
large space in front, who welcomed his Eminence with a 
hearty Irish cheer. 



68 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 



BANQUET AT THE MANSION HOUSE, 

IN HONOR OF THOMAS BRIGHT, ESQ., ENGINEER OF THE 
ATLANTIC CABLE. 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, in proposing the 
health of the Lord Mayor, spoke as follows : — 

Gentlemen, — I have presumed to rise almost 
against the remonstrance of my Lord Mayor, as- 
suming to myself the privilege of proposing to you 
his health, which, I think, should take precedence 
now of every other consideration. It would ill 
become me to expatiate upon his excellent qualities 
or his civic virtues, because I have had such slender 
opportunities of becoming acquainted with them, 
compared with those which you who surround me en- 
joy, that the most I could do would be to endeavor 
to echo those sentiments which you already enter- 
tain, by repeating what some of you may in your 
kindness have communicated to me. I consider 
that the fact of his presiding this evening, and of 
his having been raised by his fellow-citizens to the 
very highest civic position which could be the ob- 
ject of ambition to any one in his position to attain 
— the fact of his having been raised to the chief 
magistracy of the capital city of this portion of the 
empire, speaks forcibly as to his merits, and at once 
proclaims your high opinion of him. 

At the same time I am glad to find since I en- 



BANQUET TO MR. BRIGHT. 69 

tered this room, that our acquaintance is not mere- 
ly of this evening. Though he has entertained me 
in common with many others with so much splen- 
dor, it appears that many years ago I had the ad- 
vantage of being his host. Amongst the Tusculan 
hills, in a sweet and lovely recess, which many who 
are near me have often enjoyed, he w^as good 
enough to be as one of our little community — a 
youth himself, mingling amongst the youth of that 
day (I am sorry to say that we are no longer such) 

— and he reminds me that he was then associated 
within our humble collegiate walls with two men 
that I consider it a pride to have been at any time 
connected with — the two illustrious cardinals, Pacca 
and De Gregorio. I therefore feel that I have this 
evening renewed that loving bond of hospitality, 
and that familiar tie, which in ancient times was 
indissoluble, and which, once enjoyed, was expect- 
ed to continue through life. I think myself happy 
in having the opportunity of renewing those early 
relations of friendship. 

If it would be presumptuous in me to speak of 
those personal qualities that belong to your estima- 
ble chairman, there can be no impropriety in my 
alluding to those more public and general circum- 
stances which I think we may well congratulate 
ourselves on being probably the future characteris- 
tics of this his civic reign. I have been travelling 

— not indeed through the whole length, but at any 
rate through the entire breadth of this island, and 



TO CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

I think this year it will be especially enriched by 
the hand of Providence with what must be consid- 
ered amongst the greatest of its desires, as of earth- 
ly blessings — an abundant harvest and an untaint- 
ed food. 

This will, I trust, be one happy retrospect of his 
mayoralty in Dublin. And further, I have ap- 
proached sufficiently near the shores of the west 
to have almost caught distant sight of the steam 
which, parting from this coast, went forth as the 
banner on another of those messengers wdiich have 
been despatched with such enterprise, and I trust 
with such success, to vindicate the geographical 
position of Ireland on the map of the world. For, 
if in the olden time she was considered the " Ulti- 
ma Thule," as the last spot in the relative position 
of nations, she is now the foremost, the avant guard 
of Europe in its advancement towards the great 
continent of the west; and if her craggy shore 
has been the very spur and buttress which Europe 
has thrown out against the roaring Atlantic Ocean, 
it is likewise the nearest point from which Europe 
can stretch across to grasp the hand of friendship 
with a new and increasing world. 

But still more has his lordship reason to congrat- 
ulate himself that his year of office has been sig- 
nalized by the accomplishment of that great enter- 
prise of which he has so admirably spoken, and 
which has procured for us this evening one of the 
most admirable specimens of simple and modest 



BANQUET TO MR. BRIGHT. 71 

eloquence, that really -anassummg and truthful 
narrative which has told us so much that we were 
unacquainted with, at the same time that it has 
been disencumbered of all that could be personal 
or presumptuous, and has advanced tenfold in our 
estimation — for the merit of modesty is beyond 
that of genius — the praise which we had in our 
hearts allotted to Mr. Bright. 

It is difficult, after what has been said, to return 
again to the subject ; but you will pardon me if I 
indulge in a few obvious reflections suggested by 
this wonderful work. Hitherto there seems to have 
been above earth but little or no obstacle to the 
enterprise of man ; and yet he has often been 
balked in his attempts to pass from one land to 
another. In his panting impatience to communi- 
cate with his fellow-man wherever he might be 
found, or in obedience to that supreme law which 
commands him to go forth and people the earth, he 
has endeavored to track his way to its remotest 
regions — he has dived into the darkest of its val- 
leys, and there groped his w^ay amidst the stones of 
the torrent to create a path beyond the chains of 
mountains that seemed to shut him in. He has 
climbed as high as it was possible for all his breath- 
less vigor to bear him, until at length he has come 
to the snow-built pyramids on the summit of the 
mountain or the impassable glacier ; and then he 
has turned its flank, and with wonderful persever- 
ance has made his way into the opposite region. 



72 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

But who ever thought till now of at once plunging 
into the very depths of the ocean, without the 
power of seeing a single step beyond him ; almost 
beyond the power of the fathoming line to reach, 
to a depth, as we have been told, as great as the 
height of the highest mountains explored but by a 
few individuals ? And there he has ventured to 
trace his jDath, and has traced it without deviation, 
and without yielding to any, however formidable 
obstacles. He has made that path bury itself deep 
into the very undermost of the valleys of that 
unseen region ; he has made it to ascend its steep- 
est precipices — to cross its highest mountains — to 
pass down again ; till thus by an effort of perse- 
verance, the like of which the world has never 
witnessed, the two continents have been moored 
safe to one another — moored so safe by this little 
metallic hawser as no other power, no amount of 
" inky blots and rotten parchment bonds," or proto- 
cols or treaties could ever have done. 

And what is the result of this mighty w^ork ? 
Wh}^, the Greek used to boast of his fire, which 
would burn under the sea, and which, attached to 
the keel of a ship, would destroy it in the midst of 
the sea ; and we know how the power of electricity 
has been similarly employed to explode mines high 
into the air and cause the sacrifice of hundreds of 
human lives. But this little spark which we are 
now sending under the ocean — this flash of light- 
ning which passes from shore to shore — this fire 



BANQUET TO MR. BRIGHT. 78 

which burns inextinguishable below the depths of 
the mighty waters, may truly be considered — if it 
were not too sacred an expression to use — to be 
the flame of that love and of that charity between 
the two nations of w^hich the sacred text says, that 
" many waters shall not extinguish it, and Hoods 
shall not overwhelm it." Yes ; I have no hesita- 
tion in savino^, that it is time now for the American 
eagle to let go those lightnings which it is repre- 
sented as grasping in its talons, and let them drop 
into the ocean, and they will cross it safely and 
come to us, not accompanied with any roar of 
thunder, but murmuring the words of softest 
peace. 

But while this graver aspect of things comes 
naturally to the mind, there is one which presents 
itself to me that I cannot forbear to linger on with 
more of tenderness and love. I can imagine a 
poor mother in the west of Ireland — a poor Gal- 
way or Mayo peasant, who had sent her stalwart 
sons, the promise of her old age, far away as emi- 
grants to those distant regions to gather their gold, 
not that which nature has sown broadcast on the 
surface of the land, but that which honest industry 
reaps from it. I can imagine her, when perhaps 
the days of her widowhood have come, sitting on 
the farthest crag that juts into the Atlantic, con- 
templating that waste of w^aters no longer as a 
desolate wilderness which separates her from those 
she loves, but as a means of instant communication 
7 



74 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

with them, as a way of making known to them her 
joys and her distresses, and of receiving back in a 
few hours words of consolation and of promise. It 
will unite the hearts of many now estranged j and 
though it may look rather chimerical to consider 
instances of this individual reciprocal communica- 
tion as of frequent or of common every-day occur- 
rence, yet it will sweeten the bitterness of separa- 
tion, and make emigration no longer be exile. It 
will prevent the severing of one from the other 
resulting in a loss of kindred feeling, and it will 
constantly renew the affections of life. When those 
who are in America, wandering in the wastes of the 
north, or buried in the forests of the west, know 
day by day how the sun is shining, or the earth is 
looking in their own native land — when they 
know, as if they were upon the spot, what measures 
of improvement are before the legislature and be- 
fore the people — when they know, on the other 
hand, that at home all the prospects of their adopted 
country are known, the promises of the harvest, the 
state of commerce, and the improvements of society, 
and that, in fact, the communication between the 
two countries is no longer a matter of weeks, or of 
months, as formerly, but of hours — a much closer 
bond of union will be formed than was imagined by 
those persons who believed that by looking at the 
same sun, or m^oon, or star, at a stated hour, they 
were brought into communion with one another. 
It is, therefore, a matter of just pride that this 



BANQUET TO MR. BRIGHT. 75 

island has been chosen by Divine Providence as tlie 
means of this most happy communication — of this 
binding of nations and worlds in bonds which we 
may trust will be irrevocable and indissoluble 
peace. It is no small honor for it to have seen the 
most splendidly successful application of the most 
magnificent of those gifts of science and genius 
which God has given for a blessing and an honor 
to this age. It is no slight compensation, that after 
so many years of sorrow and suffering, of calamities 
of every sort, of famine and disease, this glory 
should have been given as a recompense to this 
noble land. I congratulate you on your having 
been this evening united and associated with the 
noble engineer who has executed a task so truly 
honorable to the whole nation ; and that this has 
been done under the auspices of your Lord Mayor, 
to whom has been appropriately reserved the honor 
of celebrating in a public manner this splendid 
achievement. If that this great and wonderful 
occurrence has taken place under his civic magis- 
tracy, may be considered accidental — the having 
united us here, the noble and elevated thought of 
bringing so many gentlemen of name, family, and 
high character to do homage to the genius that has 
wrought this great work — is his own idea, for 
which he is justly entitled to our gratitude. I 
therefore propose his health, and though I suppose 
one cannot wish him a longer duration of his pres- 
ent honors, at least let us hope that he may have 



76 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

many years to enjoy the looking back upon the 
present hour. 

The health of the Lord Mayor was drunk most cor- 
dially. 

After returning thanks, the Lord Mayor again rose, and 
in proposing the next toast, said — I have the honor to 
propose the health of a distinguished guest whose name is 
inscribed upon the roll of the illustrious literary celebrities 
of this age, and whose exertions in the cause of science 
and progress have met with a grateful recognition from 
men of all creeds in the country of his adoption. I con- 
sider myself fortunate in having the honor of his presence 
on an occasion like the present, which owes its origin to a 
wonderful scientific triumph, which must materially assist 
in advancing still more the great cause of civilization, and 
in promoting peace and good will amongst men, to the 
advancement of which so many years of his life have been 
energetically devoted. I should be doing great injustice, 
both to myself and the eminent Cardinal to whom I refer, 
if I did not convey my sincere conviction that his philan- 
thropy embraces all mankind, and his great and successful 
exertions in the cause of social improvement have ever 
been directed towards the general public good. Nearly a 
quarter of a century ago, he accorded to me, in a foreign 
land, the rites of hospitality. I feel honored at seeing 
him here to-night, and at having this opportunity of paying 
my respect to the great talent which produced that remark- 
able work, " The Connection between Science and Revealed 
Religion." I have the honor to propose — " The health of 
his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman." 

His Eminence the Cardinal rose and said, — 

My Lord Mayor and gentlemen, my first duty is 
very simple, for I do not see what I can do more 
than thank you with all my heart for your kindness 
in drinking my health. Your Lord Mayor was kind 
enough to invite me before I came to Ireland, un- 



BANQUET TO MR. BRIGHT. 77 

derstanding that I was about to make a tour here, 
to partake of his hospitality to-day, and I accepted 
the invitation with pleasure, because I thought it 
was due to an invitation from one who represented 
so worthily a noble city, towards which I could not 
but feel the greatest respect, and for whose charities 
it must be my anxious desire to labor. I accepted 
it also because my knowledge of him convinced me 
he was personally deserving of any mark of regard 
it was in my power to pay him. I have no reason 
to regret that on receiving it I at once cheerfully 
acceded to his invitation, and I can answer for 
myself, that it has procured for me an exceedingly 
interesting, and I hope, a profitable evening. I 
have heard with the greatest pleasure what has 
been said ; and I shall return, I am sure, deeply 
impressed with the noble manner in which the 
duties of the Mansion House are discharged in this 
metropolis. I have, of course, no pretension to dive 
deeper into its mysteries than those which have 
been unveiled to us ; but I can truly say, and you 
will join me in the statement, that if all the per- 
formances expected from the Lord Mayor are con- 
ducted in the same agreeable and substantial man- 
ner as those of this evening, he must be a most 
transcendently good chief magistrate. I have noth- 
ing more to add, except that what the Lord Mayor 
has been good enough to say of me is true, so far 
as it describes the existence of my earnest wishes 
for the welfare of my fellow-creatures. I have 
7* 



78 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

never had any thing more at heart than to exert 
whatever slender abiUties or means of improvement 
Providence has been pleased to bestow upon me, 
for the purpose of vindicating the truth of revela- 
tion, and of applying so much of science as came 
within my limited range towards the defence of 
God's exalted truths. If I have at all succeeded in 
this — if through divine Providence, I can pretend 
to the accomplishment of good, however small, by 
means of my poor attainments and limited powers, 
as well as by the unmerited position I fill, I feel it 
my duty to say,, that whatsoever the advantages 
may be, I lay them, after offering my tribute of 
them to the Almighty Giver, at the feet of Ireland. 



dundalk. 

His Eminence the Cardinal Arclibishop of Westminster 
left the Amiens Street terminus of the Dublin and Dro- 
gheda Railway for Barmeath, the seat of Lord Bellew, at 
one o'clock on Thursday. He was accompanied by Lord 
Bellew, tlie Very Rev. Dr. Russell, Principal of St. Pat- 
rick's College, Maynooth, and the Rev. Messrs. Crolly, 
Clifford, and Burke. Large crowds assembled at the 
entrance of the hotel, who cheered his Eminence most 
heartily as he drove off. On arriving at the terminus, his 
Eminence was received by the principal officials of the 
company, who conducted him to the carriage which had 
been prepared for him. 

At the Balbriggan and Drogheda stations considerable 
crowds of people assembled, and when the train stopped at 
these places, they pressed forward with reverent eager- 



DUNDALK. 79 

ness to the carriage which his Eminence occupied, and 
kneehng on the platform received his blessing. Several 
of the clergymen of Balbriggan and Drogheda were in 
attendance to pay their respects to his Eminence, and had 
the honor of kissing his hand. A similar demonstration 
took place at Dunleer, where a large assemblage of people 
collected to welcome his Eminence, and received his bless- 
ing as he proceeded towards the carriage of Lord Bellew, 
which was in readiness to convey him, and the distin- 
guished party accompanying him, to Barmeath, and as the 
carriage drove off, they gave vent to their feelings in loud 
and repeated cheers. A large number of the local gentry 
and clergy had been invited to meet his Eminence at 
Barmeath. 

On Friday the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 
made his entry into Dundalk amidst a scene of enthusias- 
tic rejoicing, which has had no parallel in the history of 
the town, and cannot certainly have been surpassed by any 
similar demonstration in this island. Whether we regard 
the immense multitudes who took part in the proceedings, 
or the spirit by which they all were animated, and the 
exertions made to do the highest honor to their illustrious 
visitor, the reception accorded to Cardinal Wiseman by 
the inhabitants of Dundalk must be considered an event 
of a most remarkable character. No evidence was needed 
to prove the devotion of the Catholics of Louth to the 
faith which has descended to them from their forefathers, 
or the respect, reverence, and affection with which they 
regard tlie ministers of that religion ; but if any one 
entertained a doubt upon the point, this' magnificent 
demonstration, the warmth and enthusiasm every where 
expressed, and the joy which beamed on the countenances 
of the multitudes who thronged the streets, would quickly 
and effectually have dispelled an idea so erroneous. 

The decorations were probably on a more extensive 
scale than has ever been witnessed before in any Lisli 
city. From the extreme end of the town, at the Newry 
side, through the main thoroughfare, Clanbrassil Street, 
through Park Street, Anne Street, and Dublin Street, as 
far as the railway station — a distance of at least a mile 



80 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

and a half — every house was decorated with garlands of 
evergreens and wreaths of flowers ; whilst numerous gay 
flagsNvaved in the breeze, and inscriptions of welcome were 
displayed in prominent situations. The effect of this pro- 
fuse display of green leaves and of the festoons of flowers, 
which were in many instances most tastefully arranged, 
was extremely novel and pleasing. The decorations oppo- 
site to the old market-house, and in the immediate vicinity 
of the residence of Peter Russell, Esq., were particularly 
deserving of observation. Opposite to the market-house 
a triumphal arch, adorned in the usual manner, had been 
erected. From tlie top of it a banner was suspended, upon 
which the words " Cead mille Fealthe " were inscribed, and 
a variety of flags were grouped together and erected upon 
the summit of each of the supporting poles. Two other 
poles, from which flags were also displayed, were erected 
at the pathway on each side of the road ; and from ihe 
windows of the adjacent houses flags, banners, and ban- 
nerets of every hue, size, and description, added, by their 
glowing colors, to the brilliant effect. 

It was expected that his Eminence would arrive in town 
at eleven o'clock from Barmeath, the residence of Lord 
Bellew, where he had spent the previous evening. A 
number of the inhabitants, accordingly, went out to meet 
him, accompanied by a band, and carrying several very 
handsome banners, on some of which religious devices 
were painted ; flags, glowing witli brilliant colors, and 
glittering with gold and silver, were also profusely dis- 
played. The crowd, which increased to an enormous 
multitude as it proceeded onward, advanced about two 
miles before the carriage containing his Eminence and 
other distinguished persons was seen approaching. A 
cheer, loud, enthusiastic, and prolonged, immediately rent 
the air ; the band played an appropriate air, and when 
the cortege drove up, the people, unharnessing the horses, 
proceeded to draw the Cardinal's carriage for the remain- 
der of the way. His Eminence repeatedly bowed in 
acknowledgment of the cordial applause of the people, 
and appeared to be much gratified with the warmth of 
his reception. The procession, for such it may be called, 



DUNDALK. 81 

then moved slowly onward, surrounded and followed by 
the people, who renewed their cheering at frequent inter- 
vals. The road and streets were lined by spectators, who 
joined heartily in the acclamations, and every window 
along the line of route was filled with ladies, who waved 
their handkerchiefs as the Cardinal's carriage drove slowly 
past. It was nearly twelve o'clock when his Eminence 
arrived in town, and he proceeded without delay to the 
church. His Eminence was accompanied by Lord Bel- 
lew, George Bowyer, Esq., M.P. ; the Rev. E. L. Clifford ; 
the Very Bev. Dr. Russell, President of Maynooth ; the 
Rev. Mr. Crolly, Maynooth ; and the Rev. W. Burke. 
Several Catholic clergymen, from various parts of the 
county, occupied the veiiicles by which the carriage of li*is 
Eminence was accompanied into the town. 

The church of St. Patrick is a fine ecclesiastical struc- 
ture. It was erected some years ago by the unaided 
exertions of the Catholic clergy and parishioners of Dun- 
dalk, and it now stands an enduring monument to their 
piety, zeal, and perseverance in the cause of tlieir holy 
religion. The interior is spacious, forming a central nave 
terminating in front of the sanctuary, within which is the 
high altar, and two side aisles, formed by rows of pillars 
of graceful workmanship. At the end of each aisle is a 
side altar, railed off of the other portions of the structure. 
The whole of the interior — roof, side walls, and pillars — 
is painted and decorated in the most chaste and beautiful 
style of art, the prevailing color being azure and gold, 
with various tintings of exquisite delicacy and finish. 
The church is lighted principally by stained-glass win- 
dows, representing scriptural and devotional subjects ; and 
at the end, facing the grand altar, is erected a powerful 
and sweet-toned organ, with capacious gallery for the choir. 
Ample preparations had been made in the interior of the 
church for the ceremonies of the day. Within the sanc- 
tuary, to the left of the altar, was placed a dais covered 
with crimson cloth, on which was the chair of state to be 
occupied by his Grace the Primate. Two seats, also cov- 
ered with crimson cloth, were placed to the extreme right 
of the altar. These were set apart for the reception of 



82 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

prelates. Immediately in front of the Primate's chair, 
and advanced to the sanctuary railing, was a platform, 
ascended by three steps richly carpeted, from which his 
Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop had to preach. To 
the left of the altar stood the throne whereon his Emi- 
nence was to assist at the High Mass. It was covered 
with scarlet damask cloth, embossed with gold flowering, 
and the overhanging canopy was richly fringed. The 
clergy of the various dioceses, to the number of over two 
hundred, assembled in the compartments of the church 
allotted to them, namely, the sections of the side aisles 
nearest to the small altars. Amongst the clergymen were 
the following : — 

* The Rev. M. Corrigan, P.P. ; Rev. M. Brennan, P.P. 
Rev. M. Loughran, P.P. ; Rev. G. M'Guire, P.P. ; Rev 
P. Dorian, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Mooney, P.P. ; Rev. Mr 
Smith, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Callan, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Pentony 
P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Kearney, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Malone, P.P. 
Rev. Mr. Mulligan, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Gartland, P.P. ; Rev 
Mr. Cassidy. P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Began, Administrator ; Rev 
P. Garden, 'P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Kearney, P.P. ; Rev. Mr 
M'Yeagh, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Byrne, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Curly 
C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Hoey, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Clifford, C.C. 
Rev. Mr. Binmngham, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Clifford, C.C. 
Rev. Mr. M'Quaid, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Gillen, C.C. ; Rev 
Mr. M'Nally, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Campbell, C.C. ; Rev. Mr 
Magin, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. M'Ginity, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Dooly 
C.C. ; Rev. Mr. M'Kenna, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Brennan, C.C. 
Rev. Mr. Crawley, Maynooth ; Rev. Mr. Hanratty, C.C. 
Rev. Mr. Mocken, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Powderly, C.C. ; Rev 
Mr. Kearney, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. O'Sullivan, C.C. ; Rev. Dr 
Rogers; Rev. M. M^Keon, C.C. ; Rev. J. Levens, C.C. 
Rev. P. Keran, C.C. ; Rev. W. M'Ardle, C.C. ; Rev. Mr 
DuQ:gan, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Stokes, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Lennon 
C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Loy, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. M'Keon, C.C. ; Rev 
Mr. Arkin, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Tierney, C.C. ; Rev. Mr. Far- 
rell, C.C, &c., <fec. 

Shortly before noon, the high altar, which was magnifi- 
cently decorated for the occasion, was lighted up with a 



DUNDALK. 8 



9 



profusion of wax candles, and soon afterwards his Grace 
the Most Rev. Dr. Dixon, Primate, attired in his episcopal 
vestments, came forth from the vestry, followed by bishops 
and clergy, and assumed the chair of state in readiness 
to receive him. The following prelates, attired in epis- 
copal robes, and wearing the pectoral cross, were in 
attendance : — 

The Right Rev. Dr. M'Nally, Bishop of Clogher. 

The Right Rev. Dr. Browne, Bishop of Kilmore. 

The Right Rev. Dr. M'Gettigan, Bishop of Raphoe. 

Th^ Right Rev. Dr. Blake, Bishop of Dromore. 

The Right Rev. Dr. Denvir, Bishop of Down and 
Connor. 

The Right Rev. Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Derry. 

The Right Rev. Dr. M'Gettigan, Coadjutor Bishop of 
Raphoe. 

The Right Rev. Dr. Leahy, Coadjutor Bishop of Dro- 
more. 

At a quarter after twelve o'clock the cheering of the 
people outside the church announced the arrival of the 
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. The entrance gates 
were then thrown open, and his Eminence, who was 
attired in the scarlet robes and white ermine cape of a 
cardinal, and wore the pectoral cross, was received by the 
following clergymen : — The Rev. Dean Kiernan, PP., 
Dnndalk ; the Rev. Canon Rogers, P.P., Togher ; the Rev. 
Canon Tierney, P.P., Tallantstown ; the Rev. Canon Len- 
noD, Crossmaglen ; the Rev. Canon Murphy, P.P., Kil- 
leavy; the Rev. Canon Gaussen, P.P., Corbeg; the Rev. 
Canon Quinn, P.P., Tynan, and the Rev. Canon Levens, 
P.P., Ardee. A procession was formed, and his Eminence, 
preceded by the Rev. Canons, passed up the nave, the 
organ pealing forth its triumph, and having entered the 
sanctuary, bowed to the primate, the prelates, and the 
clergy, who received him standing, and was then con- 
ducted to the throne. The ceremonial prescribed by the 
Roman Pontifical, on the occasion of High Mass celebrated 
in the presence of a cardinal, was then commenced — his 



84 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Dixon officiating as high priest 
celebrant ; the Rev. P. Hanratty, assistant priest ; the 
Rev. R. O'SuUivan, deacon ; the Rev. G. Weir, sub-dea- 
con. Masters of the ceremonies — The Rev. F. M'Ginity, 
and the Rev. J. Levens ; the Rev. Dr. Russell officiated 
as assistant-priest to the Cardinal ; and the Rev. Mr. Clif- 
ford and the Rev. Mr. Burke as assistant-deacons at the 
tiirone. The aspect of the interior of the sanctuary 
during the celebration of High Mass was brilliant in the 
extreme, and the sight of one of the princes of the Church 
presiding in state at the offering up of the holy sacrifice, 
surrounded by venerable prelates and a large body of 
the clergy, must have filled the hearts of the devout con- 
gregation with fervent devotion and thanksgiving to God 
that they were allowed to assist on an occasion so interest- 
ing and impressive, and which will be so memorable in 
the annals of the Catholic religion in this country. Im- 
mediately after the first Gospel, his Eminence the Car- 
dinal Archbishop of Westminster left the throne, and 
ascending the platform in front of the sanctuary, addressed 
the assembled multitude. 



THE SERMON. 

♦• This is the victory which overeometh the world — our faith. 1 John v. 4. 

When we contemplate the Apostles undertaking 
their ministry, we cannot fail to be struck with one 
singular feature of their characters, the calm and 
undoubting manner in which they assumed com- 
mand over the whole world. The world of their 
day was the world of power, of wisdom, and of 
glory. Never had the Roman empire extended its 
arms so wide asunder, nor held the extremities of 
its dominions with so firm a grasp. Never had 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 85 

learning, philosophy in particular, been more culti- 
vated and favored in Rome itself. Never had such 
magnificent monuments been raised, such luxury 
displayed, such spectacles witnessed, as in the Gos- 
pel era, from Augustus to Nero. It was looking 
down immediately on a world like this that John, 
already enriched by the experience of sixty years 
since our Lord's ascension, confidently writes the 
w^ords of my text. He describes, indeed, what had 
already been done. 

Yes, the Apostles had already mastered the 
world. They began by dividing the Roman em- 
pire, and the nations beyond its pale, into ecclesias- 
tical provinces; shared them out among them- 
selves for conversion, wdthout calculating difficulties, 
or forecasting consequences; and, what is most 
wonderful still, they soon reduced them into full 
subjection. Each president soon saw, seated by his 
side, a bishop who ruled the hearts and wills of 
thousands ; and every proconsul found enthroned in 
his metropolis a primate or patriarch, who governed 
an ecclesiastical province more peacefully than he 
did a civil one. And this new distribution of the 
empire long survived, and survives yet, the imperial 
adjustment of administration. Thus did the weak 
confound the things of this world — confound the 
strong. 

And so the Apostles grappled with the world of 
wisdom. They pronounced its philosophy folly, its 
learning ignorance, its principles false. They set 
8 



86 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

up a new knowledge, new maxims^ an unknown 
truth. They spoke with certainty, not experiment- 
ally ; not to meet the present want, or suggest an 
expedient. Every disposition which they made 
was a perpetual law ; every admonition an eternal 
precept. Their declarations were not to be ma- 
tured by experience, or modified by time. The 
entire system was cast at once, and came perfect 
from its mould; with a confident assurance that as 
it began so it would continue to the end of time. 
And thus did the foolish things of the world con- 
found the wise. 

With the glorious world of their day, the Apos- 
tles simply closed by contempt, they raised nothing 
against it but the cross ; in aught else God forbid 
that they should glory. They trod barefoot upon 
its gold and jewels, its pageants and triumphs. One 
may imagine the scorn with which Peter or Paul 
looked on any gorgeous pomp that passed them, 
thinking in his heart : " One day a far more noble 
array shall bear my crucified Lord across this 
very spot, so proudly adorned by the persecuting 
emperor." And it has been so. Every year the 
successor of St. Peter carries the adorable Mystery 
of Love across the site of Nero's circus.* And thus 
did the contemptible things of this world confound 
the glorious. 

But then this victory was not thus to end. So 

* The square of St. Peter's. 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 87 

long as the world lasts, it has to be overcome by 
faith. There is a sublimity in the very simplicity 
of the prophecy ; for what less than a prophecy is 
that which has to be fulfilled in every age ? When 
victory is mentioned, conflict is presupposed ; and 
when we speak of perpetual victory, we speak also 
of perpetual conflict between that which conquers 
and that which has to be repeatedly subdued. 

Nor does St. John speak of faith as the result or 
the crown of such victories, but only as the means 
whereby they are to be obtained. Most distinct is 
the character of the two, of faith and of the world. 
The first is simple and definite ; unvarying with 
time and country — our faith : the other vague 
and general ; different in every region ; changeable, 
so that no one could then foresee its possible phases 
— the world. 

Our faitli^ what was it ? It was not our learning, 
our skill, or our science. It was not what was to 
be the possession of the wise, or the inheritance of 
the opulent, or the spoil of the valiant, or the badge 
of the great and noble. No. It might be possessed 
by any one who had not the least eloquence to 
propagate it, nor the genius to defend it, nor cour- 
age to be its apostle. This faith was to be easy of 
access, to be light of burden, and to adapt itself 
to the smallest amount of ability. Then it was not 
to be the faith of one, or of another, it was to be 
" our faith ; " the faith of each and every one who 
belongs to the true Church, and is in commu- 



88 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

nion of her sacraments. Such was the faith that 
had to conquer the world. 

Let us suppose that at the time when St. John 
wrote these words, there existed in the Koman em- 
pire a chieftain who had obtained many triumphs ; 
who had conquered provinces ; had enriched his 
legionaries : had added the title of the Gallic or 
the Parthic to his name ; and that towards the 
end of his long life, he should concentrate the skill 
gained by long experience to the devising of a 
means whereby the empire should be rendered for- 
ever invincible. Let us imagine him producing a 
weapon, be it sword or lance, so light that it could 
be wielded by any stripling conscript, and declare 
solemnly to those who trusted him, that by its 
single power all possible foes should be effectually 
subdued. Were some one standing by, who pos- 
sessed the gift of prophecy, an Apostle, for instance, 
we might conceive him glancing into futurity, and 
thus addressing him : — 

"In a few years hence all the power of Rome 
will be required on her eastern and north-eastern 
frontier, to beat off the flying squadrons of Parthi- 
ans and Scythians. They rush like a flight of 
locusts round your legions, discharge their fatal 
arrows in a cloud into the midst of them, and 
sweep into the desert on their fleet steeds, defying 
all pursuit, and never come within reach of your 
new weapon. How w^ill you cope with them ? 

"Then later will appear a race, clad, man and 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 89 

horse, in steel of finest temper, dashing like a 
whirlwind into the enemy's ranks; men wielding 
huge maces of studded iron, which crush the helmet 
deep into the brain; or ponderous swords which 
cleave the cuirassed knight to his saddle-bow. 
Have you calculated how your new arm will meet 
their assaults ? 

'' In fine, the whole face of war will change : 
strength of arm or temper of metal will little avail. 
From iron mouths will issue clouds of smoke, 
amidst a roar as of thunder, hurling missiles that 
bear a certain though unseen death, and able by 
one blow^ to mow down entire ranks of enemies. 
Will your youths, armed with your light weapons, 
be able to rush against the jaws of these monsters 
and silence them or overthrow them ? " 

Now, something to human ear as rash and as un- 
wise as would have been to a foreseeing mind such 
a promise of victory to an unvarying feeble weapon, 
might liave sounded to a thoughtful one the assur- 
ance of the Apostle of unfailing success to a weak 
principle against an infinitely varying antagonistic 
power. For the changes in civilization could easily 
be, and have been, as great as those in w^arfare. 
Yet faith has sufficed for all. 

What more varied than the w^orlds of Britain 
and Gaul from those of Rome and Africa, from those 
of the half-civilized regions of Asia, or the fabulous 
East beyond the Indus ? Yet, one by one, faith has 

8* 



90 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

subdued them. But in succeeding ages was the 
victory without fail ? 

It was in the golden days of Roman greatness, 
at the very era of imperial power and wisdom, that 
the feeble old man of Ephesus spoke his word, and 
seemed by it fearlessly to say : " Mighty as is this 
empire, it is in your power to overcome it." " And 
how ? " " By your faith." It was not long before 
the word was tested ; indeed it had been so before 
uttered. Fierce persecution assailed the Church. 
The religion of Christ, at first despised, had groAvn 
up strongly. Its enemies thought it would be easy, 
should it become troublesome, to pluck it up by 
the roots. If this had ever been possible, it was 
now too late ; the axe was required to fell the vig- 
orous plant. Willing victims come forward on 
every side ready to attest, even by death, the sin- 
cerity of their faith. Among these it will not be 
difficult to select a champion, who, like David, shall 
defy and put to shame the entire host of the 
Philistines. 

See there, a venerable man come to Rome from 
the East, on purpose to bear such witness. He 
wears the cloak of the philosopher; his pen and 
his speech seek opportunities to explain and defend 
those truths, on behalf of which he is ready to die. 
And so he will ; but we cannot accept him as the 
representative of our thought. Pardon us, holy 
Justin, glorious martyr of Christ 1 Thou art filled 
with earthly wisdom as with divine ; thou art 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 91 

learned in all wherein thy heathen antagonists 
pride themselves. Thou art not the foolish thing 
which we seek, that we may confound the wise. 

Then behold, there stands ready before the tribu- 
nal an unlettered soldier, who, bred in camps and 
tutored in battle, rough and hardy, will scarcely be 
able to reply to the interrogatories of its judge. 
He has declared himself a Christian, he has pro- 
claimed his faith. Yes, and he will brave all tor- 
ments, and gladly give up his life in its defence. 
Still forgive us, noble centurion and blessed martyr, 
if we accept thee not as our avowed delegate, to 
prove the axiom of John. Thou art robust and 
stalwarth, used to suffer pain and brave public 
death. Thou hast of the strength of this w^orld, 
and we want the feeble to confound its strong. 
And w^here shall w^e find this ? 

Go into the innermost recesses of some old Chris- 
tian house — one in which the true religion has 
already passed into an inheritance, and the tra- 
ditions of heathenism have died out. There you 
may perhaps find a virtuous maiden concealed like 
a modest flower from the gaze of men, the joy of 
her parents, their solitary hope. She has shrunk 
instinctively and by her choice from public resorts ; 
she has not frequented the Forum, she has abhorred 
the licentious theatre, she has never mingled in the 
gay assemblies of pagan households. Gentleness, 
modesty, and sensitive delicacy are among her f rst 
qualities, carefully cultivated from her infancy. 



92 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Let her be seized by some traitor, and suddenly 
dragged forth before the public eye ; as that of one 
who has lived long in a dim light, and is placed at 
once in the glare of midday, is her dazzled vision. 
It is not a crowd, but a multitude, by which she is 
surrounded — a clamorous, lewd, and brutal mob. 
Her modest charms whet their appetites for blood. 
On each side of her are coarse and savage execu- 
tioners, red from the wine-press of martyrdom, in 
which they have crushed the best fruit of Christ's 
vineyard, playful in the handling of their rude im- 
plements of torture. Before her is the judge with 
his assessors and attendants, cold and stern, deter- 
mined not to be overcome by a child like her. She 
may hear at a short distance the howling of wild 
beasts and the yells of fifty thousand human beings 
equally thirsty for her blood. Her life hangs in the 
balance against the words that she shall speak ; 
with life are honor, ease, enjoyment, rank. All are 
hushed to dumbness listening for the words of the 
bashful, blushing maiden, anxious and eager for her 
to yield. " Only say, ' I renounce the Christian 
faith,' and you are safe," insinuates blandly the 
softened president. She pauses but for a moment 
as she lifts her eyes to heaven, and stretches forth 
her arms in prayer; then with a calm look and 
firm voice exclaims, " I believe in my Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

That is enough ; a shout of fury cuts off all fur- 
ther explanation -, the wild beasts are let loose upon 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 93 

her, or she is hideously tortured, till at length her 
mangled remains are dragged and flung away, to be 
recovered and enshrined by friendly hands. Who 
has conquered here ? The very enemy owns it. 
The crowd itself is abashed ; more thoughtful and 
feeling hearts are- softened ; the very judge mut- 
ters. " She has fairly beat me." And what was it in 
her that conquered ? Neither strength nor wisdom, 
only her faith. She believed in Jesus Christ ; she 
proclaimed this belief, and it brought on her trial ; 
she held it steadfast, and she overcame by it. 

A couple of centuries more and that empire of 
paganism is extinct, and the Christian one of the 
West is fast declining. Italy is become the prey of 
barbarous hordes, who in their ferocity spare noth- 
ing, and in their rapid succession leave no intervals 
for restoration, or even for breath. One of these 
tribes, the most terrible of the invaders, has crossed 
the Alps, spreading desolation around, and sending 
forward to Rome notice of its anticipated glut 
amidst the remains of ancient riches. So success- 
ful, so haughty is the career of this irresistible 
band, that its leader, Attila, takes the name, which 
all accord to him, of "the Scourge of God." But 
on the Chair of Peter sits a Pontiff of noblest 
Eoman spirit, national and ecclesiastical, learned, 
saintly, eloquent, and fearless ; one who knows it 
to be among the highest prerogatives of the shep- 
herds of his fold to meet the wolf that would 
attack it, beat it back, or give their lives for their 



94 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

sheep. He goes forth, therefore, from his capital, 
attended by his unarmed clergy, travels to the 
boundaries of middle Italy, and confronts the bar- 
barian chieftain at the head of his savage host. 

He speaks to him with authority and gentleness 
combined ; the proud Northern listens like a docile 
child to the paternal admonition, replies with deep 
respect, submits, and commands his impatient fol- 
lowers to banish from their thoughts all golden vis- 
ions of the south, breaks up his camp, and turns 
back. What a victory over that new world of stern 
and warlike mould, which was about, not so much 
to absorb existing races as to stamp them all with 
its own image, and mingle intimately its iron with 
their crumbling clay ! And by what means was it 
wrought ? What conquered here ? Faith. The 
perfect trust of Leo — so well called the Great — 
in the authority and perpetuity of his See, in the 
promises made to Peter, in its rock-like power to 
beat back the waves of earthly might, was the form 
taken by that faith, which, through him, overcame 
the Huns, and in them and Genserick, soon after, 
with his Vandals, the new world of rude prowess 
and unsapped vigor. This is the victory — your 
faith. 

And now, coming down nearer to our own times, 
we may wonder if, when John wrote these words, 
he saw in a new Apocalypse the proud Reformer of 
the sixteenth century studying how he might per- 
vert them to work their own refutation ; striving to 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 95 

make them mean, that dry, personal belief, without 
a particle of other virtue, or even alliance with 
Faith's brightest sister, Charity, should suffice for 
salvation, and thereby overthrow the faith which in 
Agnes or Leo had overcome the ancient worlds, 
and make it lie a prostrate ruin at the feet of his 
sensual world ? Did he contemplate the French 
philosopher of a later period collecting with wicked 
industry ail the known or supposed results of sci- 
ence and history, to destroy faith, and thus break 
or rust the Aveapon whereby the world was to be 
vanquished ? And after that class of sneering, sar- 
castic men, w^ho disbelieved every thing, even their 
own assertions, and ahnost their own existence, had 
passed away, did the Seer of Patmos behold another 
in Germany and England taking up their cast-off 
tools, re-polishing and re-sharpening them, to carry 
on, with greater ingenuity and coolness, and with- 
out the same scoffs or mocking air, the attempt to 
destroy faith in the learned and unlearned ? 

This, my brethren, is now going on around us, at 
least in the neighboring island. Yet the taint of 
infidelity has not reached Ireland ; it is a land in 
which it can no more live than any other venomous 
reptile. There is a repulsive vigor on its very 
shore, a belt of rejective power girding its coast, 
which does not allow the insidious destroyer to 
crawl in. And of what is this formed? Is it 
that the great progress of learning enables your 
poor to oppose knowledge to knowledge, and so 



CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 



repel infidel teaching ? Who, for a moment, be- 
lieves it? Does any one imagine that because our 
children are tauo:ht to measure the distance from 
city to city over the map of the world, or because 
they learn the names and habits of four-footed 
beasts, of birds, and fishes, the likeness of which 
covers their school walls, or because they are made 
quick at mental computation or at grammatical 
derivations, they are made proof against " opposi- 
tions of knowledge, falsely so called " ? You know 
well that it is not the extension of such secular educa- 
tion which prevents the corruption and seduction of 
the Irish people. It is their FaUh, simple and lively, 
that foils and puts to rout every attempt to lead 
them astray ; which does battle with the world of 
subtle disputation, bold denial, and learned theories. 
The simple Creed in the peasant's mouth is a pre- 
servative as^ainst all errors. His humble confidence 
in the sound teaching of his clergy, his artless 
submission to the authority of his bishop, his firm 
attachment to the Chair of Peter, the consolations 
which he has derived from it in every dark or try- 
ing hour, its associations with all that is beautiful 
and virtuous to his mind, — such are the securities 
of his lively faith ; and these suffice to render it 
unchangeable. This is the Faith by which the 
things that are not in the estimation of the w^orld 
overcome the things that ^r^, that no flesh may 
glory in God's sight. 

Nor can any one pretend that this is a barren and 



SERMON IN DUNDALK. 97 

uncultivated quality. Only look around you and 
ask what has given birth, growth, and beauty to 
this holy edifice. It is but one of the many fruits 
of Ireland's productive faith. No doubt much has 
been bountifully contributed by the rich towards 
its erection and its adornment ; but it is to the faith 
of the poor that the unceasing and unwearying 
task of both is due 5 and they have right to glory 
in the work. Scarcely can I remember a parish 
church more complete in every respect than this. 
It has been conceived in a noble and generous 
spirit — one commensurate with that faith which is 
the faith of thousands ; it is spacious, bold, yet regu- 
lar in form, pleasing in proportions, and accurate 
in its design. Every detail is here, every part 
finished; ail its windows glow with sacred light, 
filtered, as it were, of coarser rays, and purified as 
they pass through the warm tints of heavenly 
images. And now, to complete the holy work, 
roof, pillar, and wall give back that light varied by 
their own varied hues, and sparkling on their bur- 
nished gold. Brilliant, indeed, and glorious is the 
whole spectacle of this church, thus giving us proof 
how the faith, which no persecution has been able 
to shake, no seduction to weaken, no time to wear 
away, still, in all that regards advancement of what- 
ever kind, knows how to enjoy its full advantages. 
It has engaged here every resource of revived 
art, in building, in carving, in painting, in staining, 
and in metal work, to pay homage to the faith that 
9 



98 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

iirst raised, and then would beautify, the House 
of God. 

Then, if you wish to make and see this country 
happy, look first of all to the preservation of its 
j)eople's faith. Every thing else that is good will 
flourish and prosper if engrafted on this, while its 
venerable episcopate, so noble a portion of which I 
have the happiness of being associated with here, 
under its learned and saintly primate, and the zeal- 
ous clergy of whom so many have come to grace 
our solemnit}^, will never slacken their hands in de- 
fending and cultivating this precious inheritance of 
Ireland. Let no one be led away by the idea that 
in endeavoring to promote material progress, reli- 
gious considerations may be kept out of view. There 
never can or will be any real good where this sepa- 
ration of interests is contemplated • for there is no 
real good but what is moral, and no solid moral 
good which is not religious. Keep a watchful eye 
on every system of education which tends to lessen, 
still more to exclude religious influence in its teach- 
ing. However tempting the scheme, however 
liberal the promises, however plausible the mo- 
tives, listen not to the proposal. By whatever 
names the institutions may be called, keep jealously 
aloof from them : but in the education of the poor, 
more especially, prevent, by every possible means, 
any encroachment on the purely Catholic princi- 
ples of training the child in the knowledge and 
practice of religion* give him faith, strong and 



DUNDALK. 99 

lively, solid and pure, and he may go forth into the 
world with the assurance that he will conquer. 

The assistant priest having then announced from the 
platform, first in Latin, and then English, an indulgence 
of one hundred days, granted by his Eminence the Cardi- 
nal to all present in the church that day, the High Mass 
was resumed. At the consecration his Eminence knelt in 
front of the altar, surrounded by the masters of the cere- 
monies, the assistant priests, and the deacons of the throne, 
and the Host was elevated by the High Priest celebrant 
amidst a solemn silence, unbroken even by the tinkling of 
a bell, or a murmur from the vast multitude of adorers. 
The final blessing having been pronounced by his Emi- 
nence, the High Mass terminated. A solemn benediction 
of the Most Holy Sacrament followed ; after which his 
Grace the Primate, and the deacons and sub-deacons, re- 
tired into the vestry. His Eminence then left the throne, 
and, attended by the Rev. Mr. Clifford, the Rev. Dr. Pus- 
sell, the Rev. Mr. Burke, Lord Bellew, Mr. Bowyer, M.P., 
and other gentlemen, proceeded down the nave to the 
entrajice gates, where he was greeted with enthusiastic 
cheers from an immense multitude who had assembled in 
front of the church with the banners of the various trades, 
flags, and evergreens, and, after a short delay at the house 
of the Yery Rev. Dean Kieran, drove to the residence of 
Mr. Peter Russell, where the Primate, the other bishops 
of the province. Lord Bellew, Mr. Barnyer, the High 
Sheriff, and a numerous party of friends had been invited 
to meet him. After luncheon, he proceeded to the con- 
vent of St. Malachi — a community of the Sisters of Mercy, 
under the direction of Mother De Sales. His Eminence 
having been introduced to the superioress and sisterhood, 
passed to the convent schools, where eight hundred fe- 
male children, educated by the good Nuns, were awaiting 
him, and presented him with an address. At its close he 
blessed the little ones who had assembled to pay him their 
simple homage, and addressed to them a few appropriate 
observations ; and, after a short walk in the garden of the 
convent, he returned to the residence of Mr. Russell. 



100 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

The choir of the church was under the direction of Mr. 
Levey. The parochial clergy were indefatigable in their 
exertions to insure the carrying out of the necessary 
arrangements in a proper manner, and it is pleasant to 
know that their commendable efforts were attended with 
complete success. Not the slightest disturbance took 
place during the entire of the day. The people held their 
holiday at the visit to their town of one of the greatest 
ecclesiastics of the age, manifesting throughout a decorum, 
regularity, and good humor, which well sustain the repu- 
tation of Dundalk as one of the quietest and most orderly 
towns in Ireland. It is to be regretted that the vulgar 
Protestantism, from which even this place is not free, ex- 
hibited itself in one of its most sneaking as well as offen- 
sive forms, namely, the appearance of handbills, which 
were shoved surreptitiously, during the night, under the 
doors of nearly all the Catholic shopkeepers of the town, 
calling upon the Cardinal Archbishop to prove from Scrip- 
ture the doctrines of the Catholic religion. These docu- 
ments purported to be signed by the Protestant curate of 
Dimdalk and three other " gentlemen " who felt chafed 
in spirit at the manifestation of Catholic piety which they 
had been obliged to witness in the interesting events of 
the last two days. 

In the evening his Eminence was entertained at a public 
banquet in the court house, at which over two hundred 
persons were present. 

A few minutes previous to the commencement of the 
banquet his Eminence was conducted into one of the 
grand jury rooms, where addresses were presented to 
him from the clergy of the diocese of Armagh, and 
from the Town Commissioners, representing the laity of 
Dundalk. 

The Yery Rev. Canon Tierney, P.P., of Tallonstown, 
read the address from the clergy, which was as follows : — 

May IT PLEASE YOUR Eminence, — We, the Archbishop 
and Clergy of Armagh, approach your Eminence to ex- 
press the delight we feel on meeting you in this part of 



DUNDALK. 101 

Ireland, and to offer you the homage due to your ex- 
alted rank in the Church. A long period of time has 
elapsed since our country has received the honor which 
your Eminence has been pleased to confer on it. But 
long as the interval between the thirteenth and the nine- 
teenth centuries, and many as are the changes which have 
passed over Ireland during that time, no change has taken 
place in the sentiments of the Irish people as far as regards 
the dignity with which your Eminence is invested. The 
cardinals who visited our country in times long past found 
in it what your Eminence has found in it — a people de- 
votedly attached to the Holy See — tenacious of the doc- 
trines which St. Celestine sent St. Patrick to preach, and 
emulous in the expression of their respect for a Prince of 
the Catholic Church. We bless God for having preserved 
among us the faith for which our forefathers suffered ; 
and our hearts are filled with delight in having this op- 
portunity of offering to your Eminence the homage which 
they tendered on occasions similar to the present. In 
offering to your Eminence this tribute of our respect we 
cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of recalling to our 
minds the fact that there exist between your Eminence 
and the Irish clergy those relations which most powerfully 
contribute to produce union and sympathy among men. 
On the roll of illustrious men who have sprung from Irish 
parents, we rejoice in being able to place the Cardinal 
Archbishop of Westminster, with whom we are also happy 
to be connected by ties of a higher order than those of 
country or of race. Speaking the same language, living 
under the same laws, and professing the same faith as 
your Eminence, we feel that our dearest interests are 
bound up together ; and whilst we desire to partake of 
the light which your science and wisdom diffuse around 
you, we are equally anxious to share in your trials and 
solicitude for the Church of Christ. In the storm which 
assailed you when you first assumed the dignity with 
which you are now invested, our voice was not unheard, 
and from the church in which your Eminence preached 
to-day the clergy of Armagh sent you the expression of 
their sympathy. That these bonds of sympathy and union 
9* 



102 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

between your Eminence and the clergy of Ireland will be 
drawn closer by your present visit to Ireland, we enter- 
tain the most sanguine expectations. Your Eminence, we 
are sure, has beheld with feelings of unmixed delight the 
ardent faith of the Catholics of Ireland, their devotion to the 
Holy See, and how zealously they are applying themselves 
to the rebuilding of their temples and the decoration 
of their sanctuaries. We have experienced the same 
feelings, in witnessing the interest your Eminence has 
taken in our people, and in listening to the words of 
encouragement you have spoken to us. In a few days 
you will take your departure from our shores ; but the 
gratification your visit has imparted to us will be long 
felt, and the honor you have done us will not be soon 
forgotten. Our fervent prayer to God will be, that you 
may return to England in renewed health, and be spared 
long to adorn the Ciiurch which has placed you among 
her princes. 

His Eminence delivered the following reply : — 

My Lord Primate and Clergy of the Diocese of 
Armagh, — It would not become me to detain you 
at this moment by any lengthened reply to this 
most kind and friendly address. I shall have, per- 
haps, a more favorable opportunity, in the course 
of the evening, of expressing my feelings in con- 
nection with the more general topics to which it 
alludes. Allow me, therefore, in simple but affec- 
tionate words, to thank you most sincerely for hav- 
ing addressed me in such kind terms ; and, at the 
same time, to assure you that every word which has 
been spoken comes home to my best affections, and 
that I accept the address, not as conferring thereby 
the slightest advantage on you, but simply as an 



DUNDALK. 10^ 

acknowledgment of the bond which unites me so 
closely with you, the clergy and people of Ireland. 
At the same time I beg most cordially to express 
my admiration of what I have seen. I own I was 
not prepared to find so much done within a few 
years for the advancement of the outward beauty 
of religion, and for the multiplication of those estab- 
lishments and monuments which speak to the feel- 
ings of the people, and encourage them to practise 
religion, and, at the same time, secure its stability 
by addressing their lessons to their understandings 
as well as to their hearts. I again thank you 
sincerely for this kind address, and I will not de- 
tain you from what I know is awaiting us, the 
pleasure of being united together in a more ample 
space. 

The Chairman of the Town Commissioners then read 
the Address from that body, viz. ; 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the Catholic 
inhabitants of Dundalk, approach your Eminence with 
feelings of the most profound respect and veneration for 
your character as a Prince of the Church. We are 
deeply sensible of the high honor conferred on our town 
by the visit of a man so distinguished as your Eminence, 
and gratefully acknowledge the kind consideration which 
has induced your Eminence generously to accept the in- 
vitation of our venerated and beloved pastor, the Rev. 
Dean Kieran. We joyfully and heartily welcome your 
Eminence to Dundalk as Catholics, recognizing the un- 
yielding champion of our religion, whose brilliant and 
powerful eloquence and bright example have won so 
many triumphs for truth, and done so much to reconstruct 
the ancient glories of Catholicity in England. As citizens. 



104 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

we bid your Eminence welcome, acknowledging the tal- 
ented and accomplished scholar, wliose world-wide fame 
sheds lustre on our nation — whose master-mind, travel- 
ling the whole range of the sciences, has rendered them 
subservient to the illustration of the principles of revealed 
religion. In these days of progress and enlightenment, 
wlien science, with giant strides, is conquering time and 
space, and most minds are strained to keep pace with tlie 
rapidity of discovery, we are proud to be able to point to 
your Eminence as holding the foremost place amongst 
the great men of your time, and showing to the world 
that the most exalted piety, and the most profound theo- 
logical learning, with the most thorough devotion for the 
Church, are not inconsistent with the successful cultiva- 
tion of every branch of secular knowledge. We pray 
God to bless and protect your Eminence, to guide your 
actions, and strengthen your efforts in aid of our holy 
religion. 

His Eminence replied in the following terms : — 

You will allow me to be very brief in simply 
thanking you very sincerely, indeed, for this ex- 
pression of your kind feeling. I know that there 
can be no stronger bond between men than that of 
common faith, and, therefore, I am not a stranger 
amongst the Catholics of Dundalk. I, however, re- 
joice to have had an opportunity of fulfilling a 
promise long since made, that the very first occa- 
sion that brought me to the shores of Ireland, 
should, at the same time, condu-ct me within the 
walls of Dundalk. It has been a great gratification 
to me to witness what I have seen to-day, and to 
have assisted at the celebration of divine service 
within your noble church, so beautifully decorated 
and finished. The presence of your venerated Pri- 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDxiLK. 105 

mate and of so many other prelates and clergymen, 
on this interesting occasion, must have been as 
gratifying to you all as it has been a source of the 
greatest pleasure to me. Again I thank you most 
sincerely for the kind expressions contained in your 
address. 

THE BANQUET. 

The Yery Rev. Dean Kieran occupied the chair. On 
his right sat Cardinal Wiseman ; the Most Rev. Dr. 
Dixon, Primate of all Ireland ; Lord Bellew ; the Right 
Rev. Dr. MacNally, Bishop of Clogher ; Yery Rev. Dr. 
Russell, President of Maynooth College ; and on his left 
the Right Rev. Dr. M'Gettigan, Bishop of Raphoe ; Mr. 
Bowyer, M.P. ; Mr. Caraher, High Sheriff of Louth ; 
Rev. George Crawley ; Rev. James Tierney, P.P., 

&C., &G. 

Thanks having been offered by his Eminence, 
The Yery Rev. Dr. Kieran rose, and said, the first act 
he would ask them to perform was one of an agreeable 
nature, combining as it did the fulfilment of a sacred duty 
with the enjoyment of a very high pleasure. For fourteen 
hundred years this country had been distinguished for its 
attachment to religion ; in spite of all the shocks and im- 
pediments it had encountered in its course, it had always 
pursued its course round the centre of union, and never 
wavered for one moment in its attachment to the Holy 
See. Blandishments had been employed to break her 
fidelity, and cruelties had been inflicted to lessen her 
attacliment ; but neither threats nor promises had any 
effect in separating the people from the faith. He was 
sure they cherished these sentiments, but as it was proper 
on some occasions to give expression to the feelings of 
attachment to the Holy See, he thought he would be 
properly inaugurating the proceedings of the evening by 
proposing to them to drink " The health of their illustri- 
ous Pontiff, Pius IX." 



106 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

The toast was drunk with all the honors. 

The Very E,ev. Dr. Kieran again rose, and said, that as 
the proceedings were entirely of an ecclesiastical charac- 
ter, they had thought it right to exclude all political 
toasts, with one exception, which was made not to meet 
those charges which those with whom they originated 
knew to be false, but because they really wished to avail 
themselves of every opportunity to express their friend- 
ship and feelings of loyal attachment to her gracious 
Majesty. It was strange, indeed, that a charge of disloy- 
alty should be made against a people who had been loyal 
in the worst of times ; and still more strange that such a 
charge should be made by a people who themselves had 
not treated their monarchs with the greatest respect. 
The Irish people, however, had the consolation of know- 
ing that their sovereign — whose virtues made allegiance 
to her a pleasing duty — had no doubt about their loyalty. 
She had received, during her visit to Ireland, repeated 
proofs of the attachment of the Irish people ; and she 
might rest assured that she had not a more faithful and 
loyal body of subjects than the Catholics of Ireland. He 
would give them " The health of Her Majesty the 
Queen." 

The toast was duly honored. 

The health of the Prince of Wales having been proposed, 

The Very Rev. Dean Kieran again rose, and said, the 
next toast he had to propose was one which did not re- 
quire many words from him to insure for it the warmest 
and most enthusiastic reception which Irish hearts could 
give. They all felt that an honor had been conferred that 
day on the town, such as never was conferred on it before, 
and, probably, never would again. It was true, that in 
that pari of the world there was not much devotion to 
science v; .Whether that arose from want of time or apathy 
for such 'pursuits, it was not necessary now to discuss ; 
but, nevertheless, they could all admire one who had 
achieved renown for himself in the learned world, and 
their admiration was not likely to be the less when the 
individual so distinguished happened to be the child of 
Irish parents. It was their pride, tlieir glory, and their 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK, 107 

happiness, to have amongst them on that occasion such a 
distinguished individual as his Eminence the Cardinal. 
It might be truly said of him, as it had been of another 
great Irishman, that " he handled every subject, and 
whatever he took up he illuminated and adorned." Such 
a man the Church delighted to honor. It had been said 
aa:ainst the Catholic Church — and what has not been 
said of her ? — that she was the enemy of progress and the 
friend of darkness, because she knew her dominion was 
founded on it ; but the acts of the Church disapproved all 
these allegations. To complete the character of such a 
man as Cardinal Wiseman it had been allotted to him, in 
addition to his great natural gifts, to suffer for the Church 
of Christ. He (the Yery Rev. Dean Kieran) was not 
now going to dwell upon transactions which had already 
brought a blush into the face of those who acted a promi- 
nent part in the disgraceful proceedings to which he 
alluded. No doubt his Eminence must have felt great 
pain at the passions that were raised against him like the 
waves of an angry sea ; but he never shrunk from his 
post, because his faith was firm in Him who governs the 
winds and waves, and who employs the passions of men 
to carry out his own purposes, as he makes use of the 
storm and tempest to purify the atmosphere. At length 
the storm passed away, and their illustrious guest re- 
mained to enjoy the consideration which never failed to 
comfort the hearts of those who suffered in the right 
cause. The clergy of Louth could look back on these 
times with the proud consciousness of having discharged 
the duty which that crisis imposed on them. Whilst all 
England appeared to be lashed into a state little short of 
demoniacal frenzy against the Cardinal, the clergy and 
the people of Ireland were frequent in the expression of 
their deep sympathy with him. In the church in which 
they had been assembled that day to hear his Eminence 
preach was heard the expressions of honest sentiments 
and manly resolutions that came warm from their hearts, 
pledging them to the sustainment of the great cause in 
which the Cardinal had been engaged. They then told 
the people of England that they might as well howl at the 



108 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

moon with the view of putting out her light, as, acting as 
they were, with the object of driving Cardinal Wiseman 
from his post, and that the man whose letter raised the 
storm, would, probably, fall from power never to rise 
again. But whatever they did for the Cardinal on that 
occasion he had more than repaid them. His visit to the 
town would form a bright epoch in its history ; and when 
he left Ireland he would carry with him their blessings 
and wishes for his happiness in time and eternity. He 
would give them "The health of his Eminence Cardinal 
Wiseman." 

The toast was drunk amidst enthusiastic applause. 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, on rising to return 
thanks, was received with enthusiastic cheering. When 
silence was restored he spoke as follows : — 

It would be mere affectation in me to say that I 
was not prepared for the high honor which has this 
evening been paid me. I cannot, however, help 
commencing my address to you by saying, that I 
was totally unprepared for the warm-hearted, elo- 
quent manner in which your beloved pastor has 
been pleased to introduce my name to you. I 
came here to discharge a twofold duty, — first, a 
duty devolving on me because, as has been so well 
observed, the clergy of this diocese took a foremost 
part in a crisis of some danger, and gave me not 
only the support and strength of their sympathy, 
but still more, that real and valuable assistance 
which the expression of their sentiments then 
brought me ; and next, because I have long prom- 
ised to myself the pleasure of visiting this town, 
and of witnessing, as I have done to-day with de- 
light, the monument of real social and religious 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 109 

progress which I consider the people of Dundalk 
to have raised in Ireland. I have long heard of its 
grandeur and of its beauty, and I have long prom- 
ised that when an opportunity should be afforded 
me I would visit it, and lend my feeble exertions in 
any way in which it might be thought valuable to- 
wards promoting the ultimate success of so noble 
an undertaking, by contributing my small aid for 
bringing to perfection so great and beautiful a 
work. I have simply discharged this twofold duty 
to-day, and I claim nothing more than that friend- 
ship, that kind regard which I have received every 
where else, and which is due more to the position 
in which it has pleased our Holy Father to place 
me, than to any pretensions which, individually, I 
may possess. 

However, instead of merely paying me a respect 
to which my position might entitle me — instead 
of merely listening for an hour or more to what- 
ever I may have been able to say on a theme in 
itself interesting, you who are here present, and 
the thousands who are without, have made it a day 
of what I cannot call any thing less than triumph 
— of triumph, not for me, but for that supreme 
Pontiff with whom the good and faithful hearts of 
Catholic Ireland have been kind enough to con- 
sider me as intimately connected. I am sure that 
my presence here has excited the warm enthusiasm 
of Irish hearts, not for one instant because they 
imagined that I came here possessed of any dignity 
10 



110 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of a temporal or of a mere social character — not 
because for one instant they dreamed that I might, 
by appearing here, or by any word I might utter, 
excite even a passing display of political feeling. 
That, I am sure, nobody for an instant imagines. 
Any one who has witnessed the conduct of the 
population of this district to-day must know per- 
fectly well that their enthusiasm was nothing more 
than an earnest expression of purely religious feel- 
ing, of attachment to their ecclesiastical superiors 
and to the Church which has bestowed upon them, 
the poor particularly, I may say almost the only 
happiness allotted to them on earth. We know 
perfectly well that any other version of my motives 
for coming here, or of the kind manner in which I 
have been received by the people, is pure fiction — 
is, in short, one of those examples of that playful 
imagination which is so commonly exercised by the 
English press in dealing with events in this country. 
I am sure that no one, whether in BalHnasloe or in 
Dundalk, Avho has had an opportunity of listening 
to the beautiful and natural effusions of religious 
love which have, met my ears on every side, could 
for a moment imagine that this good, and zealous, 
and warm-hearted people intended their proceed- 
ings to be any thing else than an exhibition of 
religious warmth and enthusiasm, cheering to their 
hearts, and consoling them amongst their many 
miseries — past miseries, I should say — because 
every thing I have witnessed around me shows me 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. Ill 

that there is a bright and glorious day coming, 
both for social prosperity and for religion in 
Ireland. 

There is always a fear, when the transition takes 
place in any country from one social state to 
another, that it may in some way injure the inter- 
ests of a higher character which it is our duty to 
cultivate. I own that I am one of those who 
feared that w^hat we read of the prosperity appear- 
ing in the country might in some way obscure those 
high and noble feelings of attachment to religion 
which have formed the greatest boast, the real pre- 
rogative of the Irish people — that the removal of 
those great calamities that have visited Ireland, the 
relief from which might be considered to consti- 
tute almost perfect happiness, might, however 
slightly, diminish that amount of pure attachment 
which this people has always manifested towards 
the faith. We have, in fact, heard some boasting 
of late, that after Ireland had been tried and tested 
in vain by the touchstone of adversity, she might 
yield, perhaps, to that more fatal and fearful trial 
of happiness and prosperity ; but my visit, short as 
it has been, has consoled and gratified me in noth- 
ing more than this, that I have been enabled to 
satisfy myself, that while the enemies of the people 
and of the Church take care to put prominently 
forward whatever may serve their purposes, they 
are careful to conceal every thing that may be ad- 
verse to their views; and^ therefore^, while they 



112 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

speak of tillage and all that relates to agrarian 
peace and welfare, they are most studiously careful 
not to let us know the real progress made in every 
thing that develops religion, gives it solidity, and 
adds to its beauty. They have endeavored, as far 
as they were able, to keep us in profound darkness 
on that subject. I have, therefore, been astonished 
— I have been most agreeably surprised, in finding 
that religious progress is far in advance of what is 
considered social improvement in Ireland. This is 
abundantly manifested in the grand and magnificent 
scale on which all her religious edifices are now 
constructed ; in the more purely ecclesiastical and 
religious forms on which every thing appertaining 
to religion is planned and executed ; in the perfect 
monastic character of its religious institutions, 
whether they be monasteries or convents, and in 
the munificence with which institutions of charity 
and of education are brought, not merely into exist- 
ence, but to perfection. 

In all these things there has been an advance 
within these few years back far beyond what I 
should have thought possible, taking into calcula- 
tion the mere length of time that has elapsed, and 
the resources at the command of those whose duty 
it is to watch over the material and outward inter- 
ests of religion, as well as over its inward and 
spiritual influences in the hearts of the people. 
Wherever I have gone in Ireland, in the east, or in 
the west, in the capital, in Galway, or here on the 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 113 

confines of the north, I have been surprised to see 
what an infinite variety of beautiful works of piety 
are rising, and with what good taste and liberal 
spirit they are carried out. I am rejoiced to see 
such splendid edifices rearing their heads in your 
towns and cities. It is quite manifest that the 
times of misery and of concealment are passed 
away ; and it is a most grateful sight to see in this 
town, and in others which I have visited, the Catho- 
lic Church asserting its real position — not a domi- 
nant position, but its natural place before the eyes 
of men, as the representative of the faith which is 
enshrined in the hearts of the nation. The church 
which now adorns your town, grand and noble in 
its • dimensions, showing that it has a large body of 
believers attached to it who assemble within its 
walls to worship their Creator, and at the same 
time presenting so much elegance in its architect- 
ural outline, and such exquisite beauty and taste 
in all its decorative details, proves that true religion 
here is not the faith of a mere persecuted remnant 
of a people thinned by disease, famine, and emigra- 
tion, but that it is still and ever will be the religion 
of Ireland — of Ireland in country and town, of 
Ireland as a whole people, of a land which has de- 
feated every attempt to rob it of its faith or to 
weaken its attachment to its principles. 

I came to Ireland with no more than two simple 
objects in view. A few months ago, I believe in 
May last, the Bishop of Clonfert wrote to me in 
10* 



114 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

consequence of some efforts which he had been 
kindly making on behalf of some good religious 
of my diocese. In forwarding to me the remnant 
of the collection which had been made in his dio- 
cese, he intimated that some time in August or 
September he should be opening a large church in 
Ballinasloe, and he mentioned, as an inducement to 
me to come over to preach at the opening, that the 
building of this church was the work of the poor. 
He stated that they had no patron to encourage or 
assist them ; but that, in spite of open and una- 
bashed opposition, they had, by their own unaided 
exertions, succeeded in erecting a large and beauti- 
ful church ; and he added, in his kindness, that my 
presence there would be a great encouragement, 
and some recompense to these poor people for the 
sacrifices which they had made to accomplish that 
pious object. This last consideration was the mo- 
tive which induced me to visit Ireland. Had the 
good bishop told me that the church had been 
erected by some noble and wealthy patron, who 
wished me to assist at its consecration, I own that 
I would have shrunk from doing so, under the press- 
ure of my own duties, and should have hesitated 
to accept the invitation, however pressing ; but 
when I was told that the church was the work of 
the poor, and that their faces would be brightened 
and their hearts warmed by my appearing amongst 
them, I felt that a duty was imposed upon me from 
which no. prelate, however exalted his position, 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 115 

could shrink. I, therefore, for that reason alone, re- 
solved to visit Ireland. I was then reminded by 
your excellent representative, Mr. Bowyer, that I 
had previously made a promise to him, that should 
it ever be in my power I would come to Dundalk, 
and visit that church which has so long been the 
object of the solicitude of the inhabitants of this 
town and its neighborhood. I promised him, that I 
would come, little knowing how soon I should be 
called upon to fulfil that promise. Though I have 
been invited again and again to visit other parts of 
Ireland (and I may state that I am already engaged 
to preach and lecture in the metropolis), my an- 
swer to those invitations in every instance has 
been, — "I made my first promise to Ballinasloe, I 
made my second to Dundalk, and I will do nothing 
else until I have fulfilled these obligations." There- 
fore it is that I have come to Dundalk in the second 
instance, and afterwards I shall have to render what 
little assistance I can to other institutions ; but I 
feel that I have discharged the two great and prin- 
cipal obligations which were imposed upon me, by 
my present visit to Ireland. I have not yet visited 
any of my own friends and relations. I have not 
revisited the scenes of my early life, which are in 
the south of Ireland ; because I have felt that I 
must discharge my duty to those places to which I 
have been invited on purely ecclesiastical and reli- 
gious grounds. I have now stated the reason of 
my coming here ) and whatever certain persons, in 



116 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

the exercise of that playful imagmation to which I 
have before referred, may circulate on the subject, 
I can only say that I have given you the simple 
truth. I have come to you merely as a bishop and 
a cardinal, invited for an ecclesiastical purpose. I 
have discharged that duty to-day, and I depart with 
a heart full of emotion, animated with the kindest 
and most friendly feelings towards the people, to- 
wards their pastors, towards the venerated arch- 
bishop, and the other distinguished prelates who 
have assembled on this occasion. I shall also re- 
tain a vivid remembrance of my visit to your town, 
and in future I shall always have one temptation 
to resist, and that is, w^hen perplexed and anxious, 
harassed and annoyed on every side, I shall be 
tempted to say, " I will run off to Dundalk." How- 
ever, who knows but that I may have the pleasing 
opportunity some day of revisiting you. What 
you may do after what you have already done no 
one can tell ; but I think the next thing will be to 
see if we can't induce the Pope to come here. I 
am quite sure that his Holiness would see much in 
this town to rejoice and gratify his kind and pater- 
nal heart ; but in his default I am here, however 
feebly, to represent the feelings of that Holy See 
to which I am so warmly and devotedly attached. 

It has given me the greatest pleasure to partake 
of this banquet, at which the warmest attachment 
to the Holy Father has been so clearly testified by 
priests and people. For your kindness in inviting 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 117 

me to participate in this agreeable festivity^ I thank 
you with all my heart. This morning we were 
united together in a more sacred place^ where every 
thing by which we were surrounded reminded us 
entirely of our higher duties towards God and 
towards His Church. This evening certainly shows 
us how truly the same spirit can be manifested in a 
banquet of love, in which the priests and the peo- 
ple are united, and at which we are honored by the 
presence of visitors who, I am sorry to find, the 
rules of such a meeting as this do not allow to be 
more than spectators. It shows how, assembled at 
this festive board, we can be cheerful and happy 
together without false excitement, united in that 
bond of friendship which a common faith easily 
transforms into a bond of sacred affection. 

His Eminence then rose again and said, that since 
he came to Dundalk he was rather inclined to feel 
that he had been placed in the very disagreeable, 
though very common position nowadays, of not 
being the right man in the right place. Here was 
their Archbishop, worthy of their veneration and 
their love, who had humbly subsided into a second 
place in the proceedings of the morning : for it was 
only in obedience to his desire he took the position 
which he felt w^as due to his Grace — and here, 
again, at their festive board, the Primate had acted 
in the same self-denying manner. Although he 
knew he inflicted pain upon his Grace, he could not 
avoid in his presence speaking in eulogistic terms 



118 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of him. Long before he was promoted to the posi- 
tion which he now so worthily filled, his name stood 
high amongst the authorities of the Church as a 
Avriter, and as an expounder of Holy Scripture ; and 
since his elevation he had been enabled to exhibit 
on a larger scale those admirable qualities which 
before had been confined to the lecture room and 
the study. To-day he was in the midst of his people, 
and it was fitting that they should express their 
warm admiration and unaffected love for him, feel- 
ings in which he heartily joined, for he entertained 
them in the most sincere and warm manner. He 
would propose to them, " The health of his Grace 
the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ire- 
land," wishing him length of days and long rule 
over his most important province. 

The toast having been duly honored amid loud cheers, 

His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Dixon, who, on rising to 
respond, was received with loud applause, said, that lie 
could not find language in which to express his feelings 
on the present occasion for the very great compliment 
that had been paid him. It is true that he occupied a 
high position in the Church of Ireland ; but that was the 
very source of his diffidence ; for when he considered how 
inadequate he was to comply with all the requirements 
expected from one in his position, he felt that his defects 
and shortcomings were more prominently brought for- 
ward. However, for the honor conferred on him that 
day by having his name mentioned in such complimen- 
tary terms by so illustrious a dignitary of the Church, he 
would feel always most proud and grateful. His Emi- 
nence had been the leader of a movement in the sister 
country which had consoled them all, and which had 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 119 

resulted in the accession to the true Church of so many 
of those illustrious men who were now the ornaments of 
the Church. These men would tell them that they were 
moved and directed by his Eminence's kindness of heart 
as much as by his well-stored mind, which supplied them 
with solutions of their difficulties. He felt that it was 
owing to this kindness of heart that he was indebted for 
the compliment which had just been paid him. It was a 
source of joy to him to witness the proceedings of that 
day ; and he was sure that every Catholic in Ireland 
would now feel himself a greater man as he entered his 
house than he ever did before. It was to be regretted 
that any person should be so ill-natured as to be displeased 
because the people expressed their joy in so edifying a 
manner, and to appear to think that they discovered ia 
this ovation of the people something derogatory to the 
Sovereign of the country. Some portion of the news- 
paper press endeavored to construe into an act of dis- 
respect to her Majesty a circumstance that occurred ia 
another place without the slightest foundation for so 
doing ; for that dinner was a private one, and every one 
knew that the omission of the Queen's health, under such 
circumstances, could not be construed into any disrespect 
towards her Majesty. The same newspaper, however, a 
short time ago, prophesied that his Eminence would be 
extinguished. But he had risen triumphantly over all 
these attacks, and in his triumph the people of Ireland 
felt that they themselves triumphed. His lordship con- 
cluded by again expressing his thanks for the maimer in 
which his name had been introduced and received. 

The Very Rev. Dean Kieran then gave the toast of, 
" The Hierarchy of Ireland," which, notwithstanding the 
shocks to which it had been exposed, still remained on 
the spot where it had been planted by St. Patrick. There 
were many illustrious members of the hierarchy present, 
one of whom, though advanced in years, had come over 
specially from England to do honor to the Cardinal. He 
would give them, then, the toast of "Dr. M'Gettigan and 
the Hierarchy of Ireland." 

The toast was drunk amid loud applause. 



120 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

The Right Rev. Dr. M'Gettigan, Bishop of Raphoe, 
responded. In his whole life, he said, of seventy-seven 
years, he never rose to return thanks with such pleasure 
and delight as he now did. He asserted, without fear of 
contradiction, that there was not a hierarchy in the world 
more attached to the centre which God, in his wisdom, 
established to hold his Church together, than the Hierarchy 
of Ireland. They had one of tliat body coming to-day 
on two sticks, and scarcely able to walk, to pay his 
respects to an illustrious Prince of the Roman Church. 
The Catholics of Ireland had gone through a series of un- 
paralleled troubles and persecutions. He was old enough 
to remember going with his father to hear Mass at the 
side of a mountain, with the impending cliff protecting 
the worshippers from the inclemency of the weather, and 
when they were obliged to have two men stationed on the 
top of the hill watching lest the Puritans should come 
down upon them. He recollected when there was not a 
Catholic chapel in the diocese of Raphoe ; and now it was 
full of noble edihces, which, although they might not vie 
in splendor with the church of Dundalk. were inferior to 
few chapels in other parts of Ireland. He remembered 
also, when he was sent to college, there were only four 
places for the diocese of Raphoe. Now there were four- 
teen, besides two in Paris, two in Rome, and four on the 
Dunboyne establishment. These were sufficient proofs of 
tlie advance which Catholicity was making in Ireland. 
The venerable prelate concluded amidst loud cheers, by 
again returning thanks for the manner in which the toast 
of the Irish Hierarchy had been received. 

His Eminence, Cardinal Wiseman, again rose and said, 

That after their venerated arclibisliop and the 
illustrious prelates, towards whom the company had 
already expressed their good wishes, there was no 
one who had higher claims upon their attachment, 
respect, and gratitude, than the distinguished pastor 
of the parish, the Very Rev. Dean Kieran. They 



THE BANQUET AT DUNDALK. 121 

all knew bis virtues and his great merits much 
better than he could pretend to do. He could be 
only witness of what he had seen that day, but that 
alone fully demonstrated the claims which Dr. Kie- 
ran had upon the affection of the flock over whom 
he so w^orthily presided. The magnificent church 
in which they had W'Orshipped God that day had 
received its finishing touch from his hands, and 
though some might be more vast, and others of 
higher architectural and artistic pretensions, there 
was no sacred edifice which had been more fully 
carried out to the perfection of which it was capa- 
ble than that church of Dundalk. The admirable 
arrangements of that day, which had rendered it 
one of real enjoyment to all, were also attributable 
to the Rev. Dean Kieran, and he, therefore, called 
on them to drink his health, long life, and happi- 
ness. 

The Yeiy Eev. Dean Kieran, on rising to respond, was 
loudly cheered. He said that no language could ade- 
quately express the gratitude which lie felt for the com- 
pliment that had been paid him. He imagined that 
morning that his joy was complete on this side of the grave. 
AVhen he saw the magnificent spectacle which the church 
presented — when he heard the grand music which pro- 
ceeded from the organ and swelled through the aisles — 
when he observed the piety of the people, and looked upon 
the throng of priests and prelates who surrounded the 
altar, and, above all, when he listened to the inspiring elo- 
quence of his Eminence, he experienced sensations of 
pleasure and delight which lie had never felt before. He 
rejoiced especially at that glorious and edifying spectacle 
on account of the flock of which he was the unworthy 

11 



122 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

pastor. His Eminence had given liim tlie credit of having 
given the finishing touch to the beautiful church which 
adorned their town ; but the merit did not belong to him ; 
it was due solely to the people, by whose generosity that 
noble structure had been erected. High as was the 
delight which he experienced at the proceedings of that 
morning, it appeared that still further gratification was in 
store for him. He had just heard his health proposed by 
one of the most eminent men in the Church of Christ, 
and proposed in language which might raise him in the 
opinion of others, but must lower in his own, because he 
felt that he was not deserving of such praise. The Very 
Rev. Chairman concluded by again thanking his Eminence 
and the company for the manner in which his health had 
been proposed and responded to. 

The Very Rev. Dean Kieran then proposed the health 
of the Catholic laity, to whose generosity, he said, they 
were indebted for the many temples of worship, convents, 
and schools, which happily now exist throughout the 
country. He would give them the toast of " Lord Bellew 
and the laity of Louth." 

The toast was duly honored. 

Lord Bellew briefly returned thanks on behalf of the 
Catholic laity of the country. 

The company then separated. 



DIIBLO. 

A HIGH and memorable disthiction was on Sunday con- 
ferred upon the Catholic faithful of the diocese of Dublin 
by the presence and preaching within its cathedral church 
of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. His Emi- 
nence's rare talents, vast acquirements, distinguished 
virtues, and unostentatious piety, as well as his exalted 
position and great services to religion and literature, com- 
bined to create in relation to his visit the strongest and 



DUBLIN. 123 

most pleasurable interest. The progress of liis Eminence 
through the country had been marked by most enthusi- 
astic demonstrations of public respect and affection for 
him, but at no place could there have been a more striking 
exhibition of warm feeling than took place yesterday on 
the occasion of his visit to the cathedral. The Grand 
Pontifical High Mass, at which he was to preside, would 
not, it was announced, commence until twelve o'clock ; 
but for nearly two hours before that time the church 
doors were besieged with applicants for admission, a large 
proportion of them having tickets, with which they had 
previously provided themselves, in order to be enabled to 
secure the most favorable positions. The nave, the aisles, 
galleries, and every available portion of the churcii were 
densely crowded long prior to the arrival of his Eminence ; 
while outside were assembled vast masses of people, filled 
with an eager desire to enjoy the happiness in seeing so 
renowned and beloved an ecclesiastic, and, at the same 
time, to manifest their attachment to him. Cardinal 
Wiseman, attended by the Rev. Monsignor Cliiford and 
the Rev. Mr. Burke, arrived at the cathedral at twelve 
o'clock. His Eminence was in full cardinalate costume, 
including the cappa magna. He was received at the grand 
entrance by his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, attended 
by his secretary, the Rev. Dr. Murray, and accompanied 
by the Dean and Chapter in their robes. The Dean pre- 
sented his Eminence with the aspersorum, with which he 
sprinkled those present, and was then conducted up the 
centre of the nave to the throne prepared for his recep- 
tion. While his Eminence was proceeding along the 
church, attended by the Archbishop, and followed by the 
Chapter, (fee, the choir sang with full organ accom- 
paniment the anthem Ecce sacerdos 7nag-m(s, expressly 
arranged for the occasion. The striking effect of this 
beautiful composition, and the circumstances of its first 
performance here, excited general attention. At the 
Epistle side was placed on an elevation, corresponding to 
that of the episcopal chair, the chair of the Archbishop. 
The other prelates present were the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh, 
Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin ; the Right Rev. Dr. Whe- 



124 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Ian, Bishop of Wheeling, United States ; and the Right 
Kev. Dr. Whelan, Bishop of Bombay. The Chapter 
occupied a choir extending around the front of the sanc- 
tuary. 

THE SERMON. 

** And He was subject to them." — St. Luke ii. 51. 

Beneath the roof of a church dedicated to the 
glorious and ever Blessed Mother of God, where from 
every side shine down upon us the emblems of her 
dignity, on a day on which is commemorated that 
maternity,* which communicated to her all her 
sublime prerogatives ; in the presence of a faithful 
people, who know how to love and to reverence her, 
it would be contrary to every sentiment that in- 
spires me, if I spoke to you to-day upon any other 
subject than that which the time, the place, and the 
attendance so naturally suggest. It is not necessa- 
ry for me to say any thing to you who hear me in 
support of the Catholic doctrine concerning devo- 
tion to the Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
it is not requisite that I should even explain to 
you, as if you were an ignorant flock, the nature 
of this devotion, its character, its conditions ; nay^ 
it is not expedient that I should try to recommend 
that devotion or endeavor to add any thing to the 
fervor which I know animates the people of this 
island, and this city in particular — the fervor of 

* The Feast of the Maternity, kept m Ireland on that day^ 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 125 

that deep, most loving, most faithful affection to- 
wards her whom they consider their patroness, their 
mother, their best and truest friend, their interces- 
sor, forever beside the throne of her Son. No, 
my brethren, it is not for any of these purposes 
that I will address you, but it is rather to give ut- 
terance to those sentiments of corresponding love 
and devotion which form a tie between us, as every 
bond of faith and piety ever must. I will speak to 
you upon the only topic which naturally comes to 
one's thoughts here ; and I am sure that you would 
think I was wandering from what belongs to this 
day — that I was withholding from you the food 
proper to this festival of Mary, if I did not endeav- 
or to place before you such thoughts as, with my 
inadequate powers, may show you how this festival 
of the maternity of the Blessed Virgin recalls to 
us the illustrious virtues with which she was en- 
dowed, and the sublime privileges with which she 
was invested. We will simply go through a few 
passages of her life, and consider her in her various 
relations with her Son ; and see how we can trace 
those memorable events that distinguished her in 
the world, that have raised her to a place beside 
the throne of that Son in heaven, to her simple 
but glorious title of " Mother of Jesus." 

And first, my brethren, let us begin by contem- 
plating her from the moment in which she verified 
the words of the angel, and gave to the world the 
Incarnate Word. It is certain that if we look 
11* 



126 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

around on earth for a type and representation of 
the best and purest possible affection ; if we look 
for love in its utmost intensity, in its most unselfish 
simplicity, in its sweetest tenderness, there at once 
arises to our minds that natural affection which 
binds the mother to her child. For that pledge of 
God's love she is ready to sacrifice herself, forget- 
ting every consideration ; not oiily will she sacri- 
fice health, and all the pleasures of life, but life 
itself, if necessary ; and we cannot imagine a being 
more ready to give her existence for another, than 
the mother who sees her child in danger and re- 
solves at once to make herself an oblation for its 
safety. So remarkable is this affection, that God 
has beautifully chosen it as the representation of 
His own love for man. He does not content Him- 
self with saying to us, ^' I am your father," notwith- 
standing all the natural ties of affection the title 
suggests, but He compares Himself to a mother in 
His true love for us. He could not give us any 
image more complete to show the tenderness of 
His love for us, than by comparing Himself not to 
a father, but to a mother : " Can a mother forget 
the child of her womb ? And even if she should 
forget it, yet will I not forget thee." * 

Still, my brethren, perfect as is this love consid- 
ered as the highest and holiest of earthly affections, 
there must be, and there is, a love superior to it — 

*Is. xlix. 15. 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 127 

far greater, far higher — a love divine. The mother 
must love God more than the infant, for which she 
is ready to sacrifice herself No virtuous, no pious, 
no devout mother, but knows this, that rather must 
she lose her child than lose her God ; and it is dif- 
ficult to realize the magnitude of this love that 
transcends the love of the mother for her child. 
There are times when, perhaps, in her heart she 
reproaches herself with not loving God as she loves 
her babe. Even the holiest mother will confess 
that there is more emotion and sensitiveness, and 
more practical devotedness in the mother's love for 
her child than in any other ; and that willingly 
would she love God in the same way that she loves 
the object of her maternal affections ; willingly 
would she feel ready to do or to suffer as much for 
God as she does for the little object of her tender- 
ness. In danger, therefore, is even this maternal 
love of being carried to excess, so intense is its 
nature. When the moment of real trial comes ; 
when sickness strikes the child ; when, like David, 
she prays and fasts for its life ; when she offers her- 
self in exchange that the child be spared ; when 
the hour comes that she sees this little dear one 
begin to pant, and its breath gradually pass away, 
though she knows that the transition is only from 
a life of darkness and prospective misery to one of 
deathless life and infinite happiness, still she regrets 
to part with that child for her God, and for a short 
moment, perhaps, she repines and sorrows. If, 



128 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

after a few instants of burstincr orrief, she beo-ins to 

7 o 

reflect well, what are the humble words that come 
first to her lips ? " ! I have loved that child too 
deeply ; I made it too much the idol of my affections, 
and God has taken it to Himself" We see, then, 
my brethren, that this love of the mother, however 
beautiful, however natural, however commended, 
and again and again inculcated by the law of God, 
may become a dangerous affection, inasmuch as it 
may know no bounds, and possibly absorb all that 
divine love due to the Creator and Giver of all 
thino-s. This dang;er is illustrative of the force and 

o o 

power of the mother's affection for the child. 

To only one being on earth — to only one of 
God's creatures has it ever been, or will ever be^ 
granted that this love could not be misplaced — 
could not become excessive. For, by virtue of 
the maternity of Mary, she w^as constituted the 
Mother of God ; and there was no possible danger 
of her ever carrying the maternal affections, I will 
not say into excess, but even to the nearest ap- 
proach of any thing that was not pure and perfect, 
holy and most acceptable. The caresses she lav- 
ished upon her child she lavished upon God. Ex- 
ercising the right of the mother, she embraced her 
child, and it w^as God she embraced. Every time 
she administered to Him the nourishment which His 
infancy was pleased to require, she was giving to 
the incarnate God a part of herself, bestowing upon 
God a gift which no other being was entitled or 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 129 

permitted to confer. This union of the maternal 
love with the divine love was indissoluble. The two 
branches of charity growing in her were so com- 
pletely intertwined, that no power on earth or in 
heaven could separate the one from the other, or 
even for an instant disunite them, giving her, con- 
sequently, this singular prerogative, that, taking the 
highest, the most pure and perfect standard of hu- 
man love, she was privileged to exercise it towards 
her God, so that it was impossible by any effort of 
her virginal heart to love too much, for she was 
loving God with all the power of a mother's affec- 
tion for her child, and was, at the same time, ren- 
dering the love which others could only direct to 
the creature, to her Creator. 

Surely, then, my brethren, we have here, referable 
to the maternity of our dear and blessed Lady, all 
that constitutes at once, in this earthly love of the 
mother for her child and divine love of the creature 
for her God, saintliness in its highest possible per- 
fection. What is the standard of holiness? The 
love of God, the observance of the first command- 
ment — love God above all things ; for those who 
thus love God fulfil the law. If, therefore, the love 
of God constitutes the very form and substance of 
holiness — if to Mary was given the privilege of 
loving with a fervor of love that could belong to 
no other creature — if she could love her God with 
all that intensity of affection the highest that earth 
can furnish, as the representation of the most com- 



130 CARDINAL VflSEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

plete and perfect love^ that of the mother for her 
child, which was her relation to God - — she had 
consequently communicated to her a character of 
love incommunicable even to blessed spirits; and 
it was this love of her God which raised Mary to 
the height of holiness, and made her become the 
most precious and the most beautiful of His saints. 
Let us now dwell for a few moments upon the 
second stage of the relations between the Blessed 
Virgin and her Son, and see what character it be- 
stows at once upon her, different from that which 
belongs to any other person. The gospel of this 
day — the words wdiich I have chosen from it for 
my text — give us at once a cIcav to this. Our 
Lord has grow^n into that period of life w^hen a 
youth has a w^ill of his own Avhich he may follow, 
and when he knows full well his prerogatives. But 
He lived in Nazareth, subject to his parents — 
"He w^as subject to them." You understand, of 
course, w^hat that must mean. It follows that from 
that time He obeyed any order given Him, in that 
relation of parent and child. It does not mean that 
in greater or more important things He conformed 
to the will of His mother and of Joseph, His reputed 
father. The word "subject" signifies, as every one 
w^ell knows, that submission which is due from the 
child to the parent, from the subject to his prince; 
which characterizes the servant in his conduct to 
him who rules over him. It means the habit of con- 
stant obedience, the observance of every behest, 



SERMON IX THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 131 

the readiness in every time and every place at once 
to do what is bidden ; it means the disposition of 
mind, and of will, and of heart to sacrifice a personal 
w^ill to the will of another, to substitute another's 
will for one's own. Such is what we understand by 
these words ; and now let us see what is the depth 
of their meaning. Our Lord is living familiarly at 
home, as other children might live wdth their par- 
ents ; He works at a menial trade ; He is in that 
poor household the attendant upon his Mother. He 
is not called Rabbi, or Master, or Lord, as afterwards 
He was. He is still known by the name of His 
infancy — by the dear name which the angel com- 
municated to Mary — by that sweet name of Jesus, 
which was always upon the lips of His mother and 
of Joseph. He is called, He is sent, He is com- 
manded, or, command being unnecessary. He is 
desired to do whatever is needful for that little 
household. As His reputed father advances in 
years, and is approaching to his end, the obligations 
assumed by the Blessed Youth, His industry, His 
submission, His labors only increase. 

I have asked already what does this imply ? Our 
blessed Lord is God as well as man. As God, His 
holy will is none other than that of His eternal 
Father, with whom His union is so complete that it 
is impossible for Him, in any w^ay, to have any will 
in contradiction to that of the Father. He cannot, 
however slightly or imperceptibly, depart from the 
will of His Father, for it is His own. No authority. 



132 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland^ 

no jurisdiction^ no command could possibly induce 
Him to depart in the smallest degree from that eter- 
nal will in which He is himself partaker, and which 
is His own divine will, and in which there can never 
be otherwise than full and perfect identity, not con- 
formity, with the will of God. Now, my dear breth- 
ren, when our Lord obeys man. He puts His will at 
the disposal of a creature, it cannot be, except on 
the condition of complete certainty that there will 
be in every command and in every desire that may 
be expressed to Him, a perfect uniformity with the 
will of God. It must be the same to Him to obey 
the will of Mary as to obey His Divine Father- for, if 
the two are at variance, He must disobey the crea- 
ture. Not only must this fact of conformity between 
the commands of the one and the will of the other 
be such, but it must have been to the knowledge of 
God a certainty that it would be always such. The 
fact of declaring that Jesus was subject for eigh- 
teen years to that blessed Mother at once implies 
that He knew, during the eighteen years, as during 
the years that preceded, that there would be no 
discrepancy between the will of her and the will of 
His Father, with whom every act, every thought, 
every breath of His must be in necessary unison. 
Now, my brethren, we may desire to love God to 
the extent of our power. Man may seek to the 
utmost to do what pleases the Almighty, and yet 
we know it is impossible for him, in this world of 
imperfections and temptations, always to be sure 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 133 

that his will and his acts are in accordance with the 
Avill of God. On the contrary, it is only after he 
has discovered the will of God that he can truly 
say he has endeavored to follow it. It is a per- 
petual study, a constant care and anxiety with him 
that whatever he does be conformable to God's will. 
We must endeavor, as it were, to move in the same 
line or the same orbit, following exactly, step by 
step. Him from whom alone we can learn and derive 
that power of conformity to His will in all things. 
The privilege and the blessing of knowing that 
they thus conform to Him is reserved for those 
blessed spirits, the souls of the just made perfect, 
who live in God and in the eternal enjoyment of 
His presence, who cannot for a moment change in 
their devotion to Him, or in their state of perfect 
uniformity with His will. This will be the happy 
lot of man redeemed and saved, when the time of 
trial is gone by, and when he can no longer follow 
his own earthly desires. But to Mary, upon earth, 
was granted this high prerogative of being in per- 
fect conformity in her own actions to the will of 
God. So complete was this identity of sentiment, 
that the Son of God himself was able to obey her 
with the full certainty that every command of hers, 
that every request of hers would be in perfect and 
entire concord with the will of His heavenly Father. 
And so every look of Mary was but the reflection 
of the eye of God ; every word that passed from 
lier mouth was the echo of the voice of God com- 
12 



134 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

ing from His throne ; every command or wish she 
expressed, every impulse and every suggestion har- 
monized with His. Beloved brethren, what are the 
conditions necessary for love ? The desire of being 
in perfect unity and harmony with the object of 
affection ; and Mary can truly be said to have been 
in entire union of heart and soul with God, and not 
alone in love but in action and in word. 

Is there yet a higher step which it is possible for 
a human creature to aspire to, for bringing himself 
or herself nearer still to God ? There remains but 
one, and it is that higher love and uniformity with 
God's will which naturally inspires the creature 
with a desire, if possible, to cooperate with the 
Creator; to be not merely a material instrument, 
but truly a sharer in His own work ; to be chosen 
to act in His name, and to exercise power which, 
emanating from Him, is still so entrusted that it 
may be used with the freedom that gives merit to 
its application. Do you not think that the angels 
in heaven who see the face of the Father, passing 
a blissful eternity in the contemplation of Him, 
esteem it a distinction to be still further deputed to 
perform the will of God ? Do you not believe that 
the guardian angel who is sent in charge of the 
least castaway amongst the children of men — the 
poor foundling that is left to perish — considers 
himself invested with a mission full of dignity, full 
of glory, because he is thereby doing the will of 
God, carrying out His purpose, the salvation of 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 135 

mankind ; or that when an illustrious angel like 
Gabriel; Raphael, or Michael receives a commission 
to bear some glad tidings to the world, or perform 
some great work of divine dispensation, he unfurls 
his wings with delight, leaves the immediate pres- 
ence of God, which we imagine him locally to con- 
template, but which never departs from Him, and 
proceeds gladly, whether it be to Daniel to expound 
prophecy, or to Mary to bring the message of eter- 
nal love, considering it the highest honor to be thus 
enabled to assist in carrying out the glorious, the 
magnificent designs of God ? And what was the 
position of those great men of the old law, com- 
mencing with Moses and proceeding down to the 
Machabees, who were ordained to become the chiefs 
of God's people ; to whose guidance and care was 
committed the carrying out of His great mercies ; 
who bore in their hands the rod of His omnipo- 
tence ', who carried in their breasts the secret of 
His wisdom ? Were they not honored beyond all 
other men ? Did they not consider it a glory to be 
thus intrusted with any great mission of providen- 
tial action ? There was too, my brethren, in all 
this some reward of honorable distinction for those 
so engaged. The angels thus employed are dis- 
tinguished amongst the heavenly hosts, and have 
specific names, recorded that we may single them 
out for devotion ; and those who were so honored 
amongst the men of the old law were thereby 
raised above the rank of ordinary prophets, and 



136 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

became the heroes, the great men of the earUer 
dispensation. 

But to take part in the work of God silently, 
unknown, without reward from mankind, at least 
during life, without those incentives which make 
men equal to a great and high mission in the world, 
that was a merit reserved for her, without whose 
cooperation it is hard to say in what state man- 
kind w^ould have been. God was pleased that it 
should depend on her that the greatest of mys- 
teries should be accomplished. He gives her time 
to deliberate ; He accords her permission to suggest 
difficulties, to make her own terms, that she shall 
not have to surrender the precious gift which she 
values higher than the highest imaginable of hon- 
ors, so that it requires the assurance that to God's 
omnipotence even the union of the two preroga- 
tives is possible, and that attribute is to be exerted 
for her. And so it was not until she had said, " Be- 
hold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me 
according to the Word," that the great mystery was 
accomplished. 

And now pause for a moment. Here is the 
greatest of God's works, not since the creation of 
the world, but during the countless ages of His 
own existence, the Word incarnate, the Word made 
flesh. Yet how singular is the part of Mary in this 
mystery. She utters the words ; they scarcely fall 
from her lips, and she alone remains intrusted, not 
only with the precious gift itself, but with the 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 137 

knowledge of it. No one else can have known it. 
Joseph himself was not aware of it, till an angel 
revealed it to him. Allow me now for an instant 
to deviate from the line w^hich I was pursuing. I 
have addressed you as good and faithful Catholics, 
believing what the Church teaches you, and also as 
servants of Mary, feeling true devotion towards 
her ; but I beg here to make a remark which may, 
perhaps, be useful in conversing with others. Look 
at those men who, unhappily for themselves, know 
not, and understand not, the prerogatives of Mary ; 
look, I will not say, at those more wretched men 
who have the hardihood, the unfeelingness, the 
brutality, to decry her, but to those who, in more 
respectful terms, profess simply to overlook her. 
Just see the position in which such persons are 
placed, as to their belief. They say, " we cannot 
worship," as they call it, the Virgin Mary ; we can- 
not honor her, because in clomg so we should be 
derogating from the honor due to her Son, to the 
Vf ord incarnate, to Jesus Christ. I would say to 
these men. How do you know that He was incar- 
nate ? How do 3^ou know that the Son of God be- 
came man ? You say in your creed that He was 
conceived of the Holy Ghost. Who gave you 
evidence of that conception? Gabriel did not 
manifest it. He vanished as soon as he had de- 
livered his message. You do not believe, no Prot- 
estant believes, that the Bible is a simple revelation ; 
that is, a series of truths not known, and which 
12* 



138 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

could not be known by human means. The Evan- 
gelists themselves — the one from whom I have 
quoted — tells us that " Mary laid up all these words 
in her heart/' and that he sought information from 
those who knew every thing from the beginning. 
Mary was the only, the sole witness in the world to 
the mystery of the incarnation. There was only 
her w^ord that she conceived thus miraculously of 
the Holy Ghost. She told it to the apostles, and 
they believed it, and recorded it with the sanction 
of the Holy Spirit. The real source of the histor- 
ical and inspired testimony of the accomplishment 
of the great mystery of the incarnation is Mary ; 
and those who reject her could not have come to 
believe, except through her testimony, that God 
took upon him our nature. It is through her that 
they know it ; yet they pretend thtat honor to her 
is at His expense. But as it was w^ith her coopera- 
tion that this great mystery was wrought, so was it 
rio:ht that throug;h her it should be communicated. 
The time at length came for the avv^ful comple- 
tion of that eternal mystery of man's redemption 
which was to astonish men and ans^els. There was 
one heart in which all that was to come was faith- 
fully treasured — hers who had listened to the 
wonderful and mysterious words of the venerable 
old man that told her, in the days of her motherly 
happiness, that the sword of affliction w^ould pierce 
her heart. 0, she had often, no doubt, conversed 
on the painful topic with her Divine Son. She 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 139 

knew too well what was the course He had to run. 
She knew wherefore He had come into the worlds 
and how every breath of His was an act of obedi- 
ence to the will of God. She knew well that He 
had bitter food, indeed, to take, which was not pre- 
pared for Him by her hands. She had lived, by 
anticipation, in the suffering which naturally re- 
sulted from this knowledge communicated to her, 
and she well knew the time was come when, at the 
last passover with His disciples. He was about to 
cast aside this world, and enter into the kingdom of 
His father. Then did she know that another cup 
besides that of His paschal feast yvas to be placed 
in His hands, to be drained by Him to the dregs. 
She knew that Avell — so well that it is hardly 
necessary even to have recourse to the pious tradi- 
tion that she saw in a vision what passed in the 
garden of Gethsemini. But certain it is that the 
morning dawn saw her hasten to her Son, in order 
to carry out that conformity which she had pre- 
served with the will of God during the whole of 
her life ; that conformity which had been so great, 
that her Son, in obedience to her will, anticipated 
the time for the performance of Plis first miracle. 
It was right that this conformity should at length 
be transmuted into a perfect unity, incapable of 
the slightest separation ; and that could only be 
done as it was accomplished on Calvary at the foot 
of the cross. 

My dear brethren, why was Mary there ? That 



140 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

simple question in its answer solves a great prob- 
lem. Why was Mary there ? It was no part of 
the sentence on Jesus, as if to increase or to en- 
hance the bitterness of His death, that His mother 
should stand by, and it never was commanded in 
any nation, however barbarous, that the mother 
should be at the scaffold when her son expiated 
what was, rightly or wrongly, imputed to him as 
his guilt. It was not compulsory on Mary to be at 
Calvary ; she was not driven there, nor was it usual 
in her to seek publicity. She had followed him, in- 
deed, through all his mission in Judea; but she 
used to stand without, and the people who sur- 
rounded Him would say, " Your mother and breth- 
ren are outside." She did not claim the privileges 
of her rank to be close to Him when he was dis- 
puting with the Pharisees or instructing multi- 
tudes. When He went into a house to perform 
His miracles, or to a mountain to be transfigured. 
He took Peter, James, and John. We read not that 
Mary presumed to follow Him, and exult in the 
magnificent exercise of His divine power or the 
manifestation of His heavenly glory. No, she fol- 
lowed at a distance ; she kept near Jesus, watching 
over Him. But she knew that it was not her hour ; 
that it was not yet the time when her parental 
duty was to be associated with her parental rights. 
She had lived the whole of her life in retirement, 
first in the Temple, then in the cottage at Naza- 
reth. And she who naturally shrunk from the 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 141 

assemblies of men came forth at the time most try- 
ing to her feehngs, to be present at the execution, 
the brutal execution of her Son, in that form of 
suffering which was most revolting and most cru- 
elly rending of her tender heart. Mary came forth 
to witness the death — of whom ? Of her only be- 
loved son, of her only child, whom she remem- 
bered once an infant in her arms. She will draw 
nigh to see these hands cruelly pierced, wdiich she 
had so often pressed to her lips ; she will stand by 
and see that noble, that divine countenance — the 
first look from whose eyes beamed upon her, the 
first smile of whose lips shone upon her heart — 
bedewed with blood, streaming from the thorny 
crown ; to see Him still bearing the marks of hav- 
ing been beaten, and buffetted, and defiled by spit- 
tle and mocked by his persecutors. She came to 
seek Him at the hour of this suffering. And why ? 
Because the heart of the mother must be near that 
of the son, in order that they may be both struck 
together, and so endure most perfect union of suf- 
fering, that she may be said truly to cooperate, in 
sympathy, with the divine work of salvation. 

Suppose, my brethren, you have two masses of 
unalloyed gold. Let the one be heavier than the 
other, of incomparably greater value, more beauti- 
ful in its color, more pure in its substance, and in 
every way more precious from a thousand associa- 
tions. Let the other be also indeed of great price, 
though very inferior to it. What will you do that 



142 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

they may become only one ? Cast them into the 
same crucible, heat them in the same furnace, and 
they will melt into one, so that you may not sepa- 
rate them again. What a furnace of affliction, what 
a crucible of torture and of anguish w^as that in 
which the two hearts of Jesus and Mary were 
fused in that hour on Calvary ; and could it have 
been possible that there should arise a difference of 
thought, of feeling, of desire between the two ? 
could it have been possible to unravel them, having 
lost every other thought, every other idea, in the 
predominant one of accomplishing the great sacri- 
fice which God had appointed for the salvation of 
man? 

As musical chords, when in perfect harmony, will 
so sympathize that if the one is struck its vibra- 
tions will be communicated to the other, and agi- 
tate it in perfect accord, so did the fibres of those 
two most blessed hearts, agreeing so justly in tone, 
utter the same sweet strain of patient love ; and 
every pang and throb of one was faithfully repeated 
in the other. 

Then this conformity went further still. In that 
most solemn hour Jesus formally recognized Mary 
as His mother, as He proclaimed God to be His 
father. What could she aspire to but imitation, 
however imperfect^ of what the Heavenly Father 
was accomplishing in His well-beloved Son ? Then, 
as she knew that the Eternal Father was Surren- 
dering Him to sacrifice and to death out of love 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 143 

for man^ could she do less than surrender Him too ? 
And she is come hither for this very purpose. 
Therefore does she stand at the foot of the Cross, 
that for lost man she may make a public and will- 
ing sacrifice of all that is dear to her on earth. 
Only she, His mother, can thus put herself into 
strict uniformity with His Almighty Father. As 
she accepted Him at His incarnation, she yielded 
Him at His death, saying, " The Lord giveth and 
the Lord taketh away ; blessed and fully accom- 
plished ever be the will of God ; " yes, although it 
may wring her maternal bosom, and drive the 
sword of affliction deep into her loving heart, even 
to its inmost core. Thus it is she became a co- 
operator, as far as possible, with God in His great 
work ; she became the priestess on the part of 
mankind, to whom was allowed to accomplish the 
holocaust which was considered too difficult and 
painful for Father Abraham, the sacrifice of a be- 
loved child. While we know that Jesus Christ is 
alone the priest and the victim to His Father, we 
do not derogate from the infinite majesty, efficacy, 
and sublimity of the oblation of the Lamb upon 
our altars, by believing that He permits us. His 
unworthy priests, to be, in a certain degree. His 
coadjutors in the work, not in any way increasing 
its efficacy by aught that we can do, but still, 
standing as it were at His side. His ministers, so- 
liciting and producing the divine action, without 
which nothing that we can do would take effect. 



144 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

In some such manner it may be said that Mary, 
loving God as no other creature ever loved Him, 
loving in uniformity with His divine will, in a way 
never granted to any other being on earth, at 
length reached that which must be the very con- 
summation of the desire of love, that of acting, 
w^orking, and suffering with God ; taking part, so 
far as human infirmity can do, in the accomplish- 
ment of His sublime and glorious work of re- 
demption. 

My brethren, I am sure that many of your hearts 
have been suggesting that this maternity of Mary 
extends beyond one dear Son • and you ask, are 
not we her children ? Do not we commemorate 
this day her kind, affectionate, and efficacious re- 
lationship with us of a mother to her children ? 
I need not tell you that, when the two sacred 
hearts of Jesus and Mary were so melted together 
in affliction as that they could not be separated? 
that was the hour in which the fully-recognized 
brotherhood between Jesus and us was established. 
The relationship which commenced with the incar- 
nation, caused us to become His brothers truly, 
and Mary consequently to become our mother ; but 
His parched and quivering lips, just before He 
uttered His last cry upon the cross, proclaimed this 
relationship, and bade her receive from John his love 
as a child, and John to receive hers as of a mother. 
We accept these words in their fullest sense. We 
take our place willingly with the beloved disciple 



SERMON IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH. 145 

without fear of being rejected, and gladly send np 
our prayers to Mary for intercession, as our mother 
sitting on her throne in heaven. We cannot place 
her in the ranks of other saints who are partaking 
of bliss with Him. There are amongst them, no 
doubt, those to whom w^e owe special devotion, 
those who are the patrons of our country, those 
who planted and defended its faith, who were cele- 
brated for having honored it, and, still more, blessed 
it. There are also there our guardian angels with 
the mighty host of blessed spirits that we know to 
be ministering before the throne of God. Yet not 
with the honor that w^e pay or the prayers which 
we address to any of this glorious array of saints 
and angels can we classify the deeper devotion, the 
more fervent supplications, still less the filial duty 
which we owe the mother of God. We speak to 
them as saints, as faithful servants of the Lord, as 
our friends who have preceded us to glory, and can 
assist us there ; but to none can we use the words 
w^hich we can apply to Mary; to none can we 
speak as a child to its mother ; with none other 
can we establish our claim to the patronage, care, 
and love, w^hich, as children of a common mother, 
every day and every night we are at liberty to 
demand from Mary. Even as Solomon, when his 
mother w^as announced, rose and bowed to her, and 
placed her on his right hand on a throne before all 
others, so is Mary placed between the Heavenly 
Host and her Son ; so that when we think of her 
13 



146 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

we may lift our minds and thoughts to her as one 
enjoying heaven like a solitary, brilliant luminary, 
shining between Him and the highest rank of those 
blessed hosts. And why ? Because she is the mother 
of God. Her maternity has bestowed upon her 
that which, after all, is the completion of her love. 
Her love is perfect, her conformity is rendered 
eternal, and her cooperation with Jesus continual 
in that constant flow of her kindness to us, in that 
perpetual representing of om^ wants to her Divine 
Son, in her faithful intercession for us all, consist- 
ently with her singular prerogative as the mother 
of God. Then, beloved brethren, cease not in your 
affection to her. Mind not more than you do the 
winds that fly past you words which you may hear 
in disparagement of this most beautiful devotion, 
as if the worship of our divine Lord suffered from 
devotion to her. Pray frequently in your necessi- 
ties to her, in your wants, in your trials, personal 
or domestic, and feel sure that she will attend to 
your petitions. Be assured that the link which 
bound Him to her on earth, and continues to unite 
Him to her in heaven, also binds us to her, so that 
in Jesus and Mary we have our confidence, our 
hope, and, in the end, eternal bliss. 

At the conclusion of the sermon, which produced a 
yivid impression, the mass was proceeded with, and dur- 
ing its celebration the devotional concentrated demeanor 
of the vast congregation indicated hearts overflowing with 
humility and love towards God. The benediction having 
been given, the Cardinal, the bishops, members of the 



LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 147 

chapter, and clergy generally, left the sanctuary in pro- 
cession and went to the sacristy. 

His Eminence made a brief stay in the presbytery, 
where a number of introductions took place, and he was 
then conducted to the carriage in waiting to convey him 
to the residence of the Archbishop in Eccles Street. The 
street in front and in the neighborhood of the cathedral 
and presbytery was blocked up with thousands of people, 
and when his Eminence appeared, he was greeted with 
oft-repeated peals of enthusiastic cheering and waving of 
hats and handkerchiefs. The people pressed around the 
carriage, and some ardent men, notwithstanding urgent 
remonstrances to the contrary, insisted upon taking the 
horses from the carriage and bringing his Eminence in 
triumph to Eccles Street — a compliment which was paid 
him amid hearty cheering, with surprising vigor and ex- 
pedition. 

Amongst the array of gentry who occupied places in 
tlie nave of the church were, the Right Hon. the Lord 
Mayor, the Lady Mayoress and family, and also several 
members of the corporation. 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman delivered a lecture on 
Monday evening at the Rotundo, on " The Ornamental 
Glass found in the Catacombs," in aid of the funds of the 
male orphanage under the management of the Society of 
St. Vincent de Paul. Long before eight o'clock, the hour 
appointed for the commencement of the lecture, the 
Round Room was crowded to excess by a very brilliant 
audience, which included a considerable number of ladies. 
Upon the platform, and in the immediate vicinity of the 
chair reserved for his Eminence, we noticed the Right 
Hon. the Lord Mayor, the Right Rev. Dr. Derry, Bishop 
of Clonfert ; the Very Rev. Dean Meyler, the Very Rev. 
Monsignor Yore, V.G. ; the Rev. Canon M'Cabe, Very 
Rev. Dr. O'Connell, the Rev. M. Collier, the Very Rev. 
Dr. Spratt, &c. The back benches were crowded with 
Catholic clergymen. The street opposite to the principal 
entrance to the Rotundo was densely thronged by people 
anxious to catch a glimpse of his Eminence, who, on his 
arrival, was greeted with the most enthusiastic cheering, 



148 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

which was renewed again and again. At a few minutes 
past eiglit o'clock his Eminence entered the room, and his 
appearance on the platform was the signal for a vehement 
and protracted burst of applause. When silence was 
restored, he spoke as follows : — 



THE LECTUEE. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — I can hardly flatter my- 
self that the subject on which I have proposed to 
address you will prove to be one of very great or 
general interest ; and it may require, perhaps, some 
little explanation how it came to be selected. I 
was pressed to give a lecture on behalf of the St. 
Vincent de Paul Society, an institution the excel- 
lence of which my own experience has sufficiently 
made known to me. At first I declined, from not 
feeling exactly prepared to lecture on any partic- 
ular subject. And I feared that amidst the pressure 
of engagements already accepted I should not be 
well able to make sufficient preparations to acquit 
myself in a proper manner of such a duty. How- 
ever, further urged, I thought it became me to 
yield, and to attempt at least to do something, if it 
was in my power, for an institution which I so 
highly prize. And it so happened that at the very 
moment when I was reflecting on what subject I 
should address you, I received the plates of a most 
interesting work in course of publication in Kome 
by one of the most learned ecclesiastical archaeol- 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 149 

ogists, who, in sending them to me, accompanied 
them with a message that he should be very glad 
if I would give a lecture upon his work. 

It was a subject; indeed, familiar to me for many 
years, but still not in the way in which he has 
brouo'ht it before us. For here we have collected 
together with immense diligence, and illustrated 
with rare erudition, all that has been written by 
others at any former period, with vast additions of 
new and interesting matter. It seemed to me as 
if the subject was placed before me exactly that I 
might have no excuse for refusing the kind request 
urged upon me ; and therefore, I fear it was in a 
thoughtless manner, I wrote that I would lecture 
on " The Ornamental Glass found in the Cata- 
combs." Were I going to speak on the Catacombs 
themselves ; were I going to attempt to take you 
by the hand, to give you the clew, not of some 
little reading, but of a good deal of personal obser- 
vation, to lead you safe through those sacred laby- 
rinths ; were I going to introduce you into several 
of those splendid halls in which the early Christians 
held their meetings — those chapels in wdiich, after 
having attended through years of persecution the 
divine mysteries, they at length chose and received 
their sepulture ; were I going to unfold for you 
the beautiful and touching evidences of the virtues 
of those early Christians which are to be found 
engraved on every wall, painted on every ceiling, 
even laid upon the floor on which we should tread • 
13* 



150 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

were I going to entertain you with even a more 
religious view of this immense and deeply interest- 
ing subject, by tracing the connection between the 
early and later Church, I should feel that I had in 
my hand a theme upon which indeed I could not 
only convey, perhaps, to many, some information 
that would be interesting, but upon which I could 
appeal to the feelings and the hearts of every one 
present. 

But it is not so. I am not going at all to speak 
of the great themes w^hich this subject opens natu- 
rally to our minds. I am about to lead you to 
grope in the very dust of those sacred and now 
tenfold hallowed places. I am going to request 
you to accompany me while we search here and 
there in obscure nooks ; while, with taper in hand, 
we explore the mortar that once shut in the tomb 
of a martyr, or even of an ordinary Christian, and 
see what little remnants we can find of their smaller 
works, of the most frail objects that came from 
their hands — bits of glass, hardly one intact, hardly 
one entire. 

When I said that I would treat of the ornamental 
glass of the cemeteries, perhaps some were inclined 
to think that large portions of glass, variously 
painted, representing on a large scale sacred objects, 
such as we meet in our cathedrals, and even in 
modern churches, were manufactured and used by 
the ancient Christians, and that those had been 
somehow or other collected together. Far from 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 151 

any thing like this must you expect. It is only 
something exceedingly slight of which I shall treat, 
and yet, I will venture to say, not without its own 
peculiar interest. The glass of the catacombs con- 
sists of fragments, not one single piece of it having 
come down to us in its entire state. Fortunately, 
the parts most interesting to us have been pre- 
served, and have been collected ; and it is concern- 
ing these that I am going to address you. 

You will almost be inclined to smile when I say 
at once, for the truth must come out, that I intend 
to speak to you about nothing else but pieces of 
glass which have once formed the base, the bottom 
of common drinking glasses of different sizes. Noth- 
ing more than this. I will, however, divide my sub- 
ject so as to bring it before you in as clear and 
complete a manner as it will bear. I regret that it 
is not in my power to put before your eyes what 
would, more easily than any description of mine, 
convey to you an idea of these interesting little 
monuments. I could not, indeed, place here before 
you drawings even of the largest size of them in 
existence. It would only be by magnifying them 
to gigantic proportions, and thus, in fact, destroying 
all their beauty, that I could give you an illustra- 
tion, an idea that would be taken into the mind 
through the sight, of any of those objects. You 
must, therefore, trust to the inadequate description 
which I can give you of them. 

The material, then, as I have already said, of 



152 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

which these cups or glasses were made, was plain, 
simple glass. Take either a common tumbler or a 
wine-glass, or a still larger gla.ss made in the form 
of a flat cup, with two handles, such as you see 
now used for ornament, or to put flowers in ; im- 
agine each of these completely broken away at the 
sides, and nothing left of them but the base. This 
will give to you a very sufficient idea of Avhat 
remains to us of a multitude of those figured 
glasses : and I may as well say at once that there is 
only one single fragment in existence of the side 
of one of any of them, and that is a small portion, 
which shows that sometimes, at least, the sides were 
treated in the same manner as the bottoms. All 
these fragments belong, as I have said, to three 
sizes. The first was, no doubt, the base of a sort of 
cup, wide and shallow, with a foot to it ; the other 
two forms belong to simple drinking glasses ; and 
in every instance, except one in the British Museum, 
the smallest were so convex below that they could 
not possibly have stood on a table, but must have 
been either drunk off at once, or placed in a hollow 
base like an egg-cup, for, in reality, they are as near 
as possible like the end of an egg. 

We have then three sizes, or three averao:es, for 
measuring them pretty accurately. I find that the 
greatest dimensions of any discovered is between 
four and five inches in diameter, speaking of the 
painted parts, because sometimes there is a plain 
inargin left all round. The painting on any one 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 153 

of these glasses does not exceed four and a half 
mches at most ; and that we may consider as the 
first size or module. The second ranges from four 
and a half inches to about three ^ and then there 
comes the third^ which goes from that size to one 
much less ; so small, and yet, as we shall see, em- 
bellished in the most extraordinary manner. Of 
these glasses, or pieces of glasses, some hundreds 
now exist ; they are almost in every museum in the 
world. We have some, very small pieces chiefly, in 
the British Museum, but one or two of them of 
some value. There are one or two in France, in 
the Fould Museum ; there are one or two at Flor- 
ence ; there are perhaps half a dozen in one or two 
private collections in Italy ; as at Bologna, and at 
the towns of Urbania and of Pesaro. But by far 
the largest number are in Eome, and the greatest 
quantity of these naturally in the Vatican Museum, 
where for a long time there has existed a portion 
known as the Christian Museum, containing in it 
works and objects belonging to the early Christians ; 
and there especially is an immense collection of 
these glasses. It will be easy, after what I shall 
have to say, to understand why the great bulk 
should exist there. In what is called the Kirche- 
rian Museum — a museum collected by a celebrated 
man known to every one acquainted with science, 
Father Kircher, attached to the Roman College in 
the hands of the Jesuits — there also is a most valu- 
able collection. It is in this college that the father 



154 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of the society, whose book I have lately had before 
my eyes, lives and works. It is Father Garrucci, 
ah-eady known to the world by a number of most 
erudite and deeply interesting archaeological works. 
As yet I have said nothing of what makes these 
glass ornaments so particularly interesting. It is 
this ; that in every one of these glasses so preserved 
there is a representation of some sort, figures, in- 
scriptions, symbols, whole scenes, detached figures, 
in fact every variety of representation, and all these 
of the brightest, most intact, and pure gold. First, 
how have they been placed there ? The artist took 
his glass — and it seems to have been indifferent, if 
it had to receive a foot, whether he took the pol- 
ished surface of the upper part of the foot on to 
which the cup had to be fitted, or whether he took 
the bottom outside of the cup itself Upon one or 
the other he spread, perhaps wdth a kind of gum, a 
gold leaf If he put it upon the pedestal he w^ould, 
of course, have to cut this into whatever it was to 
represent in the direction in which it had to be 
seen. If he put it on the outside of the bottom of 
the glass he must, of course, have been obliged to re- 
verse the letters and the figures, in order that, when 
turned over and looked at from within, they should 
be in the right direction. With a graver he cut out 
of this little leaf of gold all that was not to represent 
a figure. For example, say it w^as a head in the 
centre surrounded with a border, and then between 
the head and the border the name of the person or 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 155 

the inscription. Well, all that was not to repre- 
sent the head, the border, and the inscription, was 
removed, the gold leaf was cut away, and the glass 
left plain ; and then by some process the foot and 
the glass were put together and soldered by the 
melting of the glass, so as to form one solid mass, 
retaining the gold leaf between the two, inaccessi- 
ble to the air, and consequently incapable of ever 
tarnishing or obliterating ; and so the glasses remain 
unaltered till this day. 

You may, perhaps, think this is a very simple and 
easy process ; it is by no means such. It is followed 
as yet in the manufacture of gold mosaic, such as I 
shall have to speak about later, and such as forms 
the ground of the great mosaics in the old churches 
of Italy: For instance, in the dome of St. Peter's, 
the whole ground is of gold mosaic. But there is 
this difference between the two works, that in the 
ancient glasses the gold is placed between two lay- 
ers of crystal, while in the mosaic there is only one, 
on the upper surface. But the process is just the 
same. In the mosaic the base is a piece of vitrified 
substance, which, if I have to allude to again, I will 
call at once by the Italian name (for, I believe, we 
have not a name exactly corresponding to it) of 
smalto, a word supposed to be derived, at least by 
very learned etymologists (as by Bochart), from the 
island of Malta, from which it originally came, or it 
is possibly an oriental word, and has been adopted 
in Italy. Our word "enamel" came from it, but 



156 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

does not mean exactly the same thing. This sub- 
stance is made in large masses, vitrified and opaque, 
which have to be broken with a hammer^ and are 
of different colors. With these the large mosaics 
are made in their papal manufactory. Pieces are 
put together of different tints and shades of each 
so nicely graduated, that they amount to about 
20,000 varieties, and can co-py the most delicate 
transitions laid in by the brush. The figures thus 
produced have, like old paintings, a mere back- 
ground of gold, and it is of this that I am speaking. 
Such is the case, for example, with the splendid 
series of papal portraits now being restored, in 
mosaic, in the church of St. Paul, in Eome. That 
ground is prepared simply thus : a piece of the 
same material of which the mosaic is made, of a 
red or yellowish color, is overlaid with gold leaf, 
and then a thin sheet of glass is thrown over it ; 
consequently, every piece broken to any size pre- 
sents a golden face, which cannot be touched by the 
air. It is so firmly encased between the two sub- 
stances, the opaque sjnalto and the white or bright 
glass, that it shines through, but cannot be reached 
in any way by any impurity. 

When I was in Rome last I visited the establish- 
ment where such mosaics are made for the state, 
and I brought away a piece of this gold mosaic. I 
found, after my return, that there was a house in 
London, having extensive glass works, where they 
were most anxious to reproduce this material. I 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 157 

intrusted the piece I had to an architect, who is 
very well known in this city ; and when I last saw 
him he told me that, up to that time, they could 
not by any process produce the golden mosaic, and 
that they had been totally foiled. The only way to 
succeed w^as to learn how it was done in Rome. 
The moment they put the hot liquid glass on, the 
gold leaf curled up and burned till it was black ; 
so that it required no little skill to make those 
beautiful and delicate figures, which I have de- 
scribed, on the Catacomb glass. The artists often 
left parts of them not thicker than a thread, and 
yet they threw the glass over them so as not to 
spoil the finest lines. Of course we cannot ascer- 
tain the number of failures there mav have been 
then ; but it must have been a very common art — 
an art exercised by many, and without any great 
difficulty. It cannot either have been a very 
expensive one. 

There is one instance only in which there have 
been discovered three layers of the glass, two be- 
sides the foot, so that the gold can hardly be seen 
inside. That, however, is a solitary excejotion. 
The smaller glasses — those which were like our 
drinking glasses and not flat cups with a foot, iazze^ 
as the Italians call them — must have been made 
in another way, the same, indeed, as to the mate- 
rial process ; but there being no foot, the glass must 
first have been made like a plain tumbler ; then the 
gold must have been laid and cut out on the 
14 



158 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

outside of the bottom, and finally the glass convex 
end, such as I have described, fused below all. The 
art, therefore, was essentially the same. Sometimes 
there is a degree of finish added, by the outlines 
being just touched with a line of black, so as to 
define the gold edge better, and perhaps take away 
any little jagged extremities, and give it a more 
artistic effect. 

There is another higher degree of embellishment 
used in the smaller glasses. It is not uncommon to 
find, outside, ornaments of different colors, blue par- 
ticularly, round the edge. These were evidently 
improvements added afterwards. But sometimes 
the colors are enclosed within the glass, like the 
gold. These are red, green, azure, white, and other 
beautiful colors. The highest and rarest form, 
however, in which these glasses appear to have 
been wrought, was where the wheel and diamond 
dust must have been used. First an entrravino- was 
cut into the glass, representing the figures intended 
to be produced, made hollow like a seal. This Avas 
filled up with a vitreous substance of different col- 
ors, and then covered by a sheet of glass melted 
on, so as to enclose a colored picture. These, how- 
ever, are extremely rare examples, and must have 
been much more expensive. 

After having thus given an account of how they 
were made, judging, recollect, from what we see, 
the next interesting question that meets us is, what 
is the origin of these glasses ? By whom were they 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 159 

made ? Wlio were their artists ? It is singular 
that not a single author^ certainly not a single pro- 
fane author, mentions the existence of this art. 
Pliny tells us three ways in which glass was manu- 
factured, the same as are used now ; by blowing, 
by turning in a lathe, and by chiselling or model- 
ling ; but says not a word about this method of 
ornamenting them. And there is, in truth, not a 
single passage which, upon examination, can possi- 
bly be applied to this method of treating glass. 
It, therefore, was not known, as far as books tell 
us, among the heathens — no, not even alluded to. 
There is mention of Ptolemy having had two gilt 
glasses borne in triumph, in order to exhibit them 
as wonderful specimens of art; but we have no 
evidence that by gilt glass was meant the insertion 
of the gold into the glass. It may have been 
merely what we see now every day, glass gilt by 
gold applied to the outside of it, and burnt in. 
This silence is singular, because we have clear evi- 
dence that from the time of Caracalla, until cer- 
tainly past the time of Con stan tine, this art existed 
in Eome. Caracalla flourished, if one may apply 
such a word to such a monster, about the year 211, 
and among the glasses found, is one with his effigy, 
and coins of his time represented on it. Now, w^e 
know too well that after the death of a man like that, 
who was hated and abhorred while livino;, no one 
would take the trouble to preserve his image. On 
the contrary, as this was found on a Christian tomb, 



160 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

and he was one of the persecutors of the Church, 
it is not hkely the Christians would represent him, 
at least after he had been taken aw\ay. There 
might have been reasons before that w^hy the man- 
ufacturer would be induced to make such a figure ; 
but it is not likely that it was repeated after. At 
any rate this specimen may be considered as fixing 
the earliest date we have for certain. There have 
been many antiquarians who considered these 
glasses as reaching back to the first Christian cen- 
tury, or, at least, to the second. Most of them, 
however, attribute them to the third. Yet many 
specimens, it must be admitted, cannot have been 
produced till the fourth century, because they rep- 
resent popes and martyrs who did not live till the 
beginning of that, or the latter part of the preced- 
ing century. 

We have thus a range, for certain, of 100 years, 
during which this method of working glass was 
pursued at Rome ; and yet there is not an allusion 
to it in any writer. Some quote a passage in Ter- 
tullian, in which he tells us that Christains painted 
the Good Shepherd on their chalices. We shall 
see, however, that these glasses are not chalices. 
Then what he describes may have been mere paint- 
ings ; nor does it follow that our glasses were pro- 
duced in Africa, where he lived. It is certain, in 
fact, that we have no passage in any historian or 
writer of the first four centuries which alludes to 
the custom of introducing gold into glass, and in 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 161 

that manner representing sacred or profane objects ; 
in other words, of producing a picture in gold 
within the glass. We have no record of this prac- 
tice ; and it is also remarkable, that in the multi- 
tude of such glasses which have been found, there 
are none of a period much later than the first estab- 
lishment of Christianity under Constantine. A few 
years after his death we find not a trace of them ; 
and, therefore, we may establish this singular fact, 
that there existed for 100 years a peculiar method 
of adapting glass to certain purposes, which was 
confined to some set of men or other, from whom 
it never went forth to the public. Let us see now 
who these men were. 

The first limitation I must make is this ; not a 
fragment of this golden glass has ever been dis- 
covered out of Eome. There is no other object of 
antiquity found in Eome that we do not find in 
other places — busts, sarcophagi, bass-reliefs, and 
mosaic pavements ; there is nothing heathen which 
luxury excited the ingenuity of men to produce, 
which is not to be found in palaces, and theatres, 
and baths, in other parts of Italy ; in tombs particu- 
larly, as we shall see ; and not only in Italy, but in 
every part of the Roman empire. And yet not 
one smallest frasrment of this ^lass has ever been 
found out of Rome. Therefore we may naturally 
conclude that its manufiicture was confined to 
Rome itself We know that the ancients made use 
of glass, and that they could work it beautifully 
14* 



162 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

from the earliest period. We have evidence brought 
out with great abiHty by a celebrated German 
scholar, Michaelis, in his biblical dissertations, that 
at Tyre glass was manufactured from a peculiar 
sand found there. If you go to the British Mu- 
seum you find large and beautiful glass vessels, and 
small .ones delicately finished, brought by Mr. Lay- 
ard from Nineveh. You find abundance of glass 
objects in the Egyptian collection ; you find it con- 
stantly in Etruscan and in Eoman tombs ; you find 
it in English ones too. I remember that a tumulus 
was excavated in Essex, some years ago, by, I 
think. Lord Maynard, and there was found a glass 
vessel not only intact, but containing the fluid in it, 
which had been there either from Roman or British 
times. In the Vatican Museum there is a beauti- 
ful glass vessel in which the hair of a lady has 
been preserved, and is yet quite in its integrity. 
In fact, there is no question that glass was anciently 
manufactured in every shape and form. It was 
also the custom amongst the ancients, the Irish, the 
Etruscans, the Eomans, every nation almost, to put 
into sepulchres objects of art. Most precious things, 
as you all know, have been found in tombs ; all the 
ancient jewellery which we possess has been dis- 
covered in them. When we open Etruscan tombs, 
for instance, which are still visible above ground, 
and which are the only vestiges remaining of Etrus- 
can cities destroyed 500 or 600 years before Christ, 
we find; perhaps, a thousand pounds worth of golden 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 163 

jewellery remaining untouched. We wonder tliey 
were never plundered ; but respect for the dead, 
and the dread of approaching their last abode, kept 
marauders aloof 

Further, I must observe that there is a small 
number of these glasses — but sufficient to form a 
class — which have upon them heathen representa- 
tions, from which, therefore, a pagan could not in 
any way draw back with abhorrence or disgust, and 
which he might very well have employed as fu- 
neral glasses to commemorate a death or to drink 
from at a funeral, or some other occasion of friendly 
conviviality. The heathens, therefore, might very 
well have put glasses of this sort into tombs, but 
the conclusion we are still more driven to is, that 
they were not in possession of this beautiful art — 
that they did not know it. For if they had known 
it, there is no doubt it would have extended to 
such a degree as to have become a common work, 
and we should meet it in their sepulchres and in 
other ruins. The absence of this peculiar glass 
manufacture from not only the remains of all mon- 
uments, but more completely from the monuments 
of the dead, is sufficient evidence to antiquarians 
(for I do not know that the point has ever been 
disputed) that the Christians alone invented and 
reserved to themselves this beautiful art. 

This may be considered a fact proved by every 
one of the glasses that have been found — hun- 
dreds and hundreds — which, however, bear no 



164 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

proportion to what must have been wrought. For 
we know how little now remains of what once ex- 
isted in the Catacombs. Not only has every one 
of the glasses been found in the Christian Cata- 
combs, without exception, but most of them have 
been found stuck fast in the mortar at the head of 
Christian tombs. It was customary to fasten out- 
side the grave not only objects put there for a re- 
ligious purpose, but also mere tokens of affection. 
We know that one form of vessel placed at the head 
of the tomb is held to be a certain indication that 
it is that of a martyr. For it was a general cus- 
tom, when a martyr suffered, to collect his blood in 
small vials, and at his funeral, when the body was 
laid in its little cell, cut out of the rock in the wall 
of the Catacomb, wrapped up in linen and quick- 
lime, and when the grave was closed with tiles 
or slabs of marble, these vials were pushed into 
the body of the mortar so as to be there em- 
bedded ; and there they have remained by hun- 
dreds, and I might say thousands, till the latest 
period. In many places the vials have fallen out, 
and the impressions only remain. I happen to have 
with me a most beautiful specimen of that sort of 
glass. It is carved or moulded in the most elegant 
manner. 

His Eminence here exhibited the glass, and said it was 
taken not long ago from the head of a tomb in the Cata- 
combs, where it had remained, probably, 1600 or 1700 
years. 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 165 

But, besides these objects, which had a more 
secret meaning, the Christians showed their affec- 
tion by fastening objects of price to the tombs of 
their friends, and these are to be found in ahnost 
every museum. A large number of most precious 
gems have been found in the Catacombs, and num- 
bers are in the Vatican and elsewhere. Sometimes 
it was a coin which they placed and left in the 
mortar ; sometimes it was a locket with a beautiful 
cameo upon it, or even a seal with figures carved 
upon it. These have been found after many ages 
still remaining in their places, but a great many 
have dropped out ; and singularly enough the mor- 
tar must have been so fine, it must have been so 
like plaster of Paris, that now when the gems or 
the coins are lost, the figures can be copied, and 
the legend read, reversed upon the lime. It is no 
wonder, therefore, that amongst their other beauti- 
ful objects, the Christians should have similarly 
placed our glasses. Whether they put them in 
entire, and by accidents from various causes, as 
stones falling from the roof, or from incautious 
handling by visitors or plunderers, or from a thou- 
sand other accidents, their sides have all been broken 
off; or whether the Christians broke them them- 
selves to secure them the better, for it is clear that 
the entire glass projecting from the wall would be 
exposed to be knocked out or to drop out, it is im- 
possible now to tell. We have one or two instances 
which make it probable that sometimes at least 



166 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

they inserted them entire. One of the most cele- 
brated explorers and describers of the Catacombs, 
Boldetti, tells us that he found one whole. He was 
so eager to take hold of it that he tried to force it 
from the mortar, but broke it into pieces. He put 
the fragments together and made a drawing of 
them, and that is the only representation we have 
of one that is entire. However, we can judge of 
the original forms very well, for we have so many 
representations of ancient banquets, and even of 
Christian feasts in the Catacombs, in which all the 
guests drink from these two-handled cups, that we 
can form a very fair idea of what they must have 
been. To conclude, these glasses then have been 
found in the Catacombs only, and attached to Chris- 
tian tombs ; therefore, we may conclude that every 
one of them is Christian, and that the art remained 
entirely in the hands of Christians. 

This idea seems to call up before us almost a vis- 
ion of those stern and fervent followers of the cross. 
It would be difficult for us to imagine now what 
one of those persecutions was that they underwent. 
In the heart of a great city, in the midst of a dense 
population, the work of death was going on in every 
possible form, with every aggravation, no one know- 
ing the moment when his turn might come. You 
can imagine what must have been their sufferings 
when you recall to mind the state of anxiety, for 
example, of a household in a time of pestilence or 
contagious disorder. The father of a family is gone 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 167 

to liis work in the morning ; there is a gloom hang- 
ing over the house ; no one knows what may befall 
him. The hour for his return arrives and he does 
not appear ; anxious minutes and then hours pass 
and no tidings ; the natural thought arises that he 
has been somewhere seized with the disease, and 
that, perhaps, he is in the cholera hospital or in the 
workhouse infirmary — perhaps he is dead. What 
a state for a family to be in ! Now this was just 
the case with the Christians in Rome when the. per- 
secution had reached the height of its atrocity — 
when the house had to be locked up and left to 
plunder, and the whole family found their only shel- 
ter (and even that was not secure) below in the grot- 
toes of the Catacombs. But before that time, or 
even during it, for it was necessary that some one 
should steal forth into the city and procure provis- 
ions and what was necessary for life, often would it 
happen that the father or the brother, or perhaps, 
for greater security, the no less bold and generous, 
but yet weaker members of the family, the mother 
or the daughter, would go out for purposes con- 
nected with the household. When he did not 
return, what was the thought of the family ? That 
he had been seized ; of course he had acknowledged 
himself a Christian, and he had been, perhaps, two 
or three hours that day upon the rack, his sides 
torn with cruel irons, or burned with the blazing 
torch. He is, perhaps, not even as yet dead, but is 
cast half alive amongst others, bleeding and rent 



168 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

like himself, in the fetid dungeons of the Capitol ; 
or, possibly, he has at length received his crown 
and palm, when the trembling mother or son goes 
forth, lantern in hand, to the heaps of slain, there 
to find, if possible, that now glorious one, so ruth- 
lessly torn from them. 

Imagine what days and nights of horrors there 
must have been during all this time ! Then im- 
agine, not one, but many a Christian craftsman, 
with death thus hanging over him, seated at his 
little furnace, blowing his glass and quietly cutting, 
with more or less skill, the symbolic subjects which 
were to adorn it ; and so, perhaps continuing till 
he heard at the end of the corridor or the door of 
his own home the persecutors that were making 
their way towards him ; and then he had to lay 
down his unfinished work and prepare to be himself 
one day represented upon it. This tranqillity with 
which works of art were produced in the midst of 
the agony of death, or with it impending all the 
time, forms a most tender and beautiful picture, by 
means of which we can figure to ourselves that 
Christian serenity, that Christian pe9.ce, that beauti- 
ful peace they loved to record on all their monu- 
ments, the peace of Christ, the peace of the saints, 
that peace which seemed to be to them the bright- 
est and the most consoling legacy wdiich their 
departing Master had left them. This is what we 
cannot but admire. 

It was not only on these glasses, but upon all 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 169 

other utensils, particularly their lamps found in the 
cemeteries, that you will see how the early Chris- 
tians brought out their ideas. Those lamps can be 
easily procured to almost any extent. There are 
hundreds in the possession of private persons in 
every country. They are picked up in every part 
of the Catacombs. Every one of the lamps made 
for those retreats has its cross, or the monogram of 
Christ, or some other emblem, which shows that it 
was not bought at a heathen shop in the city, but 
was made especially for, and by Christians, who 
liked to have every thing appropriate and exclu- 
sively their own. They moulded their clay, and 
shaped and baked it wath beautiful art, in order that 
whatever was around them might remind them that 
they were Christians ; and the same feelings, as we 
have seen, were carried out with the manufacture 
of their very drinking cups. They would have noth- 
ing that did not always remind them how they be- 
longed to Christ, and that they should be ready to 
suffer for Him. 

Having thus described these glasses and explained 
their origin, leKus ascertain their use. There is no 
doubt that they are Christian, and you will see this 
better when w^e come to describe what they repre- 
sent. There have been heretofore two theories con- 
cerning them : the first is, that they were chalices, 
and that rests partly upon the authority of Tertul- 
lian, in the passage to which I have already alluded, 
where he speaks of one particular representation, 
15 



170 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

now found in those cups, having also been depicted 
upon the chaUces of the ancient Christians. But 
there is another argument in favor of this theory ; 
and it is, that about the year 200, Pope Zephyrinus 
is mentioned by several ancient authorities, which 
Muratori considers sufficient to establish the fact, 
that he, the sixteenth pope after St. Peter, ordered 
the chalices and the patens used at the Holy Sacri- 
fice to be thenceforth made of glass, they having 
been till then of wood. But then the same author- 
ities assure us, that only twenty-two years after, his 
successor, Urban the First, ordered that the sacred 
vessels should be formed of silver or gold. Now, 
the interval of twenty- two years is, of course, far 
too short for us to imagine that this immense quan- 
tity of illustrated glass was manufactured in that 
time. Not only so, but some of the cups now found 
must have been exceedingly small for such a pur- 
pose. They could not have been larger than a 
wine-glass; they could not have stood, nor had they 
any thing of the shape of a chalice. Whatever 
representation we have from early times of chalices 
show a totally different form ; they had not a Hat 
shallow cup, but were made something upon the 
principle of what we use now. 

Again, the inscriptions upon our glasses do not, 
for a moment, allow us to suppose them to have 
been portions of chalices. In allusion to the sacred 
vessels, there is one sentence of antiquity which is 
extremely beautiful ; it is an expression of St. 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 171 

Jerome's in his epistle to Rusticus : " Nothing could 
be richer than that man who carried the body of 
Christ in a wicker-basket, and His blood in a glass." 
This expression is interestingly illustrated in the 
Catacombs, because we have, at this day, and I may 
have to allude to them, representations of the sacred 
bread in an open wicker-basket, and of wine united 
with it in a glass vessel, both borne, one within the 
other, on the back of a fish, the ancient emblem, as 
is well known, of Christ. The form of these glasses, 
therefore, and, as we shall see, their inscriptions, are 
not suited to the purposes of a chalice. 

There is another use for which we can under- 
stand they might be manufactured, and which, if 
we adopt as an explanation, will satisfy every con- 
dition of the objects themselves ; and that, of 
course, is the best evidence that we can have of its 
correctness. Every one acquainted with ecclesias- 
tical antiquity is aware that the Christians had 
peculiar feasts called agapes, or ^*love feasts," at 
which they met in different ways, eating and drink- 
ing together. They gave food to one another, even 
exchanging their victuals as a pledge of their mu- 
tual communion, that communion, of which the 
Holy Sacrifice is not only the real symbol but the 
real bond. These feasts were celebrated in three 
different ways. 

First. — They were practised in the churches. 
St. Paulinus, of Nola, the friend of St. Jerome, St. 
Ambrose, St. Augustin, and all the great saints of 



172 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

his time, describes to us the beautiful church which 
he himself built and adorned in honor of St. Felix, 
the martjr of Nola. He tells us that he had rep- 
resentations painted on the walls of scenes from 
Holy Scripture, in order that, when the faithful 
came to partake of the feast and looked around, 
they should not have profane objects before them, 
but such as should inspire them with holy thoughts. 
That was one form of celebration ; and, accordingly, 
many of these glasses present us with similar paint- 
ings in miniature, beginning with the creation, and 
passing through many subjects taken from the Old 
Testament. 

Second. — Another mode of celebrating these 
feasts was at the tombs of the martyrs in the Cata- 
combs. On the festivals of these saints, the faithful 
went below into the crypts, and partook of food, or 
bestowed it upon the poor who flocked there to 
receive it. We have passages in ancient fathers 
reproving abuses which had crept in, and especially 
blaming those w^ho were not content with plain 
bread and wine, w^hich were ordinarily given to 
them, but wanted more luxurious food. It is prob- 
able, too, as I will show you just now, that when 
once in the Catacombs, it was a sort of mark of 
devotion to go from the tomb of one saint to an- 
other's, and there partake of merely a taste of food, 
as a sort of symbol of the communion which existed, 
not only between the living, but also between the 
living and those who had died in Christ. 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 173 

Third. — Yery often those feasts were domestic; 
the members of a family collected together on the 
occasion of a marriage, the birth of a son, or per- 
haps, of a funeral, and partook of meat with one 
another. These have been customs in almost every 
nation under the sun. 

There were, therefore, agapes of three different 
sorts constantly practised. Every thing that we find 
upon our glasses, with the exception of the few 
heathen representations, has, in some way or other, 
a connection with, or an allusion to, those festivals. 
I do not mean that all glasses have the same inscrip- 
tions upon them ; but, for example, of four or five 
glasses that represent the same subject, two or three 
of them have words, which authorize us to conclude 
that the rest were made for the same use. The 
words which are most common upon them are, 
" drink," " live," " enjoy," being generally in Greek, 
though often written in the Roman character. Or 
they are short phrases of exclamation, or of saluta- 
tion rather ; for example, " drink with your friends;" 
"live with your friends;" "let those who have 
crowned themselves drink." Another very com- 
mon expression is, ''Dignitas amieonim^' the exact 
meaning of which is not very well known; but 
from other passages where similar w^ords are used, 
it would appear that by this " dignity," or " privi- 
lege," one was admitted to social participation with 
some friends — as we always say we accept " the 
honor " of dining with a most intimate friend. This 
15* 



174 CAEDiNAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

seems a similar sort of expression, " the dignity of 
friends ; " that is, the honor conferred b j friends of 
partaking of our drink. There is never allusion to 
any thing but drink ; however sacred the subject 
represented may be, the expression inscribed around 
it is, '^ drink and live." Therefore, it was for the 
purpose of drinking sociably with friends that these 
cups were prepared, and yet, at the same time, the 
w^hole of the images, with the few exceptions to 
which I have alluded, represent religious and sacred 
subjects. For example, our Divine Lord is vari- 
ously figured on them, and other such representa- 
tions as we cannot imagine to have been in use in 
things belonging to every-day common life. 

Having already alluded to what will have to be 
yet repeated somewhat in detail, the Scriptural de- 
signs, possibly used at church-feasts, I will say a few 
words on the other two classes of agapes, and their 
corresponding vessels. The fact of their being used 
at such feasts as were in honor of particular saints 
will account for particular representations upon 
those glasses which thus compose the second class. 
While what I have stated shows them in general to 
have belonged to religious feasts, it is rendered 
very plausible that they were used at the sacred 
celebrations held at the tombs of martyrs, by their 
having upon them the figures not only of saints — 
namely, apostles and martyrs — but almost without 
exception (I believe wdth only one exception) the 
effigies of martyrs of Rome, of those whom we 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 175 

know .to have been buried in the Catacombs, or 
there particularly venerated. Such was St. Cyprian, 
who, though not buried, was honored in the ceme- 
tery of Callistus, with Cornelius, with whom he is 
associated on the same day in the Calendar of the 
Church. These cups w^ere, therefore, apparently 
connected in some way with particular saints and 
martyrs. 

It is not improbable even, from the text which I 
will read to you just now, that those who wished to 
show themselves more peculiarly devout, or perhaps 
to exhibit a little more than others of a certain 
degree of religious luxury, had their cups for dif- 
ferent saints whose tombs they visited. What leads 
to this surmise is a beautiful passage in the Confes- 
sions of St. Augustin, in w^hich he is describing his 
mother, St. Monica. He says that when she visited 
the Memories, that is, the chapels of martyrs — 
(^'3Iemoria'' means, in the early Christian Latin, the 
place where a saint is buried or a chapel erected to 
his honor) — " That when she visited the Memories^ 
or chapels of saints, taking her basket of provisions, 
to partake of the solemn banquet, she did not take 
with her more than one little cup " — (she had, no 
doubt, one of our very small ones, unum pocillum) — 
" and though there might be many memories of the 
deceased, w^hich it appeared had to be honored in 
this manner, she carried about that selfsame only 
one, to be put on the table." These words seem to 
imply that others varied their cups according to the 



176, CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

tombs which they visited. For any other saint that 
is represented on these cups, SS. Peter and Paul 
are reproduced thirty or forty times, in proportion 
to the pecuUar veneration that was paid to them 
by Eome as its apostles ; they are generally repre- 
sented together, but sometimes one, sometimes the 
other alone. After SS. Peter and Paul comes, per- 
haps, St. Agnes, as having far the most numerous 
representations; then St. Sebastian and St. Law- 
rence, great martyrs also of Eome ; with St. Ste- 
phen, whose relics were likewise there ; then others 
less common. I must, however, return to this 
subject a little later, though I cannot pursue it in 
detail. 

I come to the third class of these glasses ; those 
of a more domestic character. We have a great 
many of them that represent simple domestic 
scenes, such as would be adapted to various occa- 
sions in which persons met at a friendly repast con- 
nected with some religious act, whether a baptism, 
a marriage, or a funeral. There figures, in the 
representations upon the cups every thing we could 
expect to find if their use and purpose was the 
celebration of such feasts of love. Therefore, put- 
ting together all the facts I have given you : ab- 
sence of all mention of them in heathen writino-s ; 
the non-existence of fragments of such glasses 
amidst heathen remains ; the quantity found in 
Christian cemeteries ; their being found only there, 
and connected with the tombs of the dead -, then 



THE LECTUEE IN THE EOTUNDO. 177 

their representations and their inscriptions ; — all 
seem equally to lead us to the conclusion^ that they 
were used in the religious banquets celebrated by 
Christians. 

Those feasts were abused in such various ways 
that they are constantly denounced by the Fathers, 
and at length, very soon after the period to which 
I have alluded as closing the age of these glasses, 
they were abolished altogether in the Church. No 
doubt most, if not all, of these abuses arose after 
the period of persecution, for all the cups with 
heathen emblems certainly belong to later times. 
When the empire became Christian, artists, like 
those of modern times, sacrificed too often their 
Christian feeling to their false taste and foolish love 
of art. The figures often were not blamable, but 
were still of such things as Christians continued to 
tolerate. They are the games of the circus, the 
different amusements of the amphitheatre ] but in 
some instances, though very few, also the effigies of 
false gods ; and yet these bear the same inscrip- 
tions as purely Christian ones, showing that it does 
not follow at all that this class of glasses belongs to 
a different system from the others. Were this the 
only case in which we have to come to a similar 
conclusion, we might hesitate to do so. But unfor- 
tunately we have other instances of this practice. 
I do not allude to the paintings on the Catacombs. 
These could not be considered as pagan )^ they were 

* Such as the representations of Orpheus, &c. 



178 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

symbolical and nothing more. But we have some 
most beautiful objects of real Christian work with 
heathen emblems. There is one especially, what is 
called a nuptial chest, of silver, in which angels 
bear an inscription, mentioning the names of the 
persons to whom it belonged, and declaring them to 
be Christians. Yet, there is a representation on it 
of a perfectly mythological scene, such as would 
be found on a similar object intended for heathens. 
We may therefore conclude, that even after Chris- 
tianity had been established, artists would run, as 
they do nowadaj^s, to choose for employment of 
their skill scenes which the Christian ought never 
to behold represented. It does not follow, there- 
fore, that these glasses were not produced by Chris- 
tian artists ; and certainly they were made after the 
empire had become Christian. Moreover, they are 
to be found in the same place as the others ; that 
is, among the tombs exclusively of Christians, where, 
for a few years after the cessation of persecution, 
many were still allowed to be buried, through de- 
votion to the martyrs. 

I proceed now to consider the subjects repre- 
sented on our glasses. I must first observe that, 
though they do not take quite so wide a range as 
the paintings on the walls and ceilings of the Cata- 
combs, yet they follow the same princij^les of selec- 
tion, for they have the same symbolical ideas running 
through them. They both exhibit a reference to 
something connected with Christianity, and even 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 179 

the forms of representation on both exhibit remark- 
able similarities. I will pass rapidly through the 
subjects treated on these glasses, and if I omit any, 
it will be only such as are imperfectly represented 
on a very small size, or so very indistinctly as to 
leave us in doubt about the real history treated. 

First, w^e will begin with the Old Testament. 
Yery singular is the choice of subjects from the 
Old Testament, made throughout the art of the 
Catacombs. Passages which a modern painter 
would most delight to design are never to be found 
treated ; while others that we should feel no par- 
ticular interest in are manifestly favorites. Why 
so ? Because early Christian art was guided en- 
tirely by a symbolic principle. That is, as the 
Christians concealed from the heathens their more 
solemn mysteries in their language and writings, so 
they were equally careful that they should not be 
known by strangers, still less by enemies, through 
their paintings, &c. They therefore concealed 
under certain representations very different and 
sublimer thoughts than appeared on the surface. 
In fact, the scenes selected from the Old Testament 
have peculiar and marked reference to such doc- 
trines as must have come most home to them as 
Christians. 

One of the most common representations through- 
out the Catacombs is that of our first parents, on 
glass of every size. This affords us a good illustra- 
tion of the symbolical characters of these drawings ; 



180 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

for tliey gradually dwindle down from a full picture 
to a mere suggestive figure. ThuS;, in the largest 
glasses, the figures are drawn in a symmetrical 
arrangement with the tree between them, and the 
serpent winding round it — much as we should 
represent the subject now. This gives us the full 
history of man's fall. Then, in other glasses of 
smaller dimensions, we have only one of our first 
parents ; next, in the smallest we have nothing but 
the tree with the serpent wound round it, and 
probably the apple ; and, finally, we have the ser- 
pent alone. The whole was like a language, in 
w^hich the first form corresponds to the large and 
illuminated characters of a grand inscription ; the 
lesser symbols were the same language, written in 
cursive characters, and suggesting the same idea ; 
just as the scratch of a pen often indicates a w^ord 
as well as if all its letters were distinctly written. 

Next comes Noe, and very simple is the form in 
which he is brought before us. He is pictured as a 
man seated in a square box, which just holds him, 
with the lid lifted up behind his head ] and in the 
Catacomb paintings, a dove is represented as flying 
towards him. It is singular that this way of sym- 
bolizing Noe is found also on the heathen coins of 
Apamea, as has been shown by writers on such 
monuments. The next worthy of the Old Testa- 
ment found on these glasses is Abraham in the act 
of sacrificing. 

Let us now see the symbolism of these usages. 



THE LECTUKE IN THE ROTUNDO. 181 

The first, Adam and Eve, represent, of course, the 
fall of man ; the cause of sin and consequent de- 
mand of a reparation, an atonement, an expiation. 
Noe and his ark are the type given by St. Peter of 
baptism — a type always continued in the Church. 
Finally, Abraham offering his son in sacrifice repre- 
sents the Incarnation, the death of our Lord, and 
the eucharistic oblation. 

After these comes Moses, given in two different 
attitudes. One pretty common representation of 
him is where he is loosening his shoes before the 
burning bush. The other figures him as striking 
the rock. On this I must dwell a little, for there is 
a remarkable similarity between this and another 
favorite one in the Catacombs, which at first sight 
presents no analogy. It is the resurrection of 
Lazarus by our Saviour. It must be remarked, 
that, generally speaking, when our Lord is repre- 
sented on glasses or in Catacomb paintings as 
performing a miracle. He almost always, if not 
always, has a rod in His hand, with which He 
touches the person or thing on which His divine 
power is exerted. Now, the rock, in the symbolical 
picture, is represented as high and narrow, occupy- 
ing just one corner of the picture ; and Moses is 
touching it with his wand, and the waters gush out. 
In one instance a man, who is no doubt the repre- 
sentative of the whole people of God, is drinking 
the water as it flows down to him. But, in general, 
Moses is alone, touching the rock. On the other 
16 



182 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

hand, our Saviour is represented much in the same 
manner when raising Lazarus. At one side of the 
painting is a rock of the same form as I have de- 
scribed ; in it is a corpse swathed hke a mummy, 
and our Lord is touching it with His wand. Such 
is the usual ancient representation of the raising 
of Lazarus. Throughout the Catacombs it is never 
treated in any other way. The resemblance is 
remarkable between the two in the general disposi- 
tion and even in the details of the pictures. In 
one instance, the representation of Moses, we see 
in the person represented the chief of God's people 
in the Old Testament ; in the other the head of 
the New Covenant. One was the lawgiver of the 
first ; the other the author of the perfect law of 
grace. The one made refreshing waters to flow 
from the rock • the other. Himself the very rock 
(1 Cor. X. 4), gave water springing up to everlasting 
life. 

But, in one representation at least, there is writ- 
ten over the head of Moses, in clear character, the 
name "Peter" Here there is evidently a double 
symbolism expressed. The Word tells us that 
Peter also was foreshown in Moses, as leader and 
head of the Christian Church. Our Lord is the 
true rock ; for from Him alone flow the waters of 
eternal life ; but Peter (himself, too, the rock) has 
a special power to elicit from it those heavenly 
streams, that flood of grace which so richly waters 
the whole Church. 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 183 

This resemblance between the ways of repre- 
senting the actions of Moses and of our divine 
Lord is clearly intended not to imply a similarity 
of actions, but a symbolism in the miracles of one 
of those of the other. 

Yery frequent, indeed, are the representations 
of Jonas, and generally in two attitudes. The first 
is clearly symbolical. We have a ship from which 
Jonas is let down into the mouth of a sea monster, 
■which has no resemblance to any known inhabitant 
of the deep, but is clearly meant merely to give an 
idea of the dragon of the Apocalypse, the infernal 
serpent. It is, in fact, an animal having a mon- 
strous head, a long and very thin curved neck, and 
a body with a tail waving above. This animal, 
totally inadequate by physical construction to swal- 
low a man, is manifestly a symbol of the evil one 
ever ready to swallow up those who descend into 
the waters of regeneration. For that sea repre- 
sents Baptism, and they who are immersed in it 
are saved from the serpent through Him, who for 
three days and three nights fulfilled the type pre- 
sented to us in Jonas. This is likewise naturally a 
favorite subject, because it is the type of the resur- 
rection which our Saviour himself has given us. 
Jonas is also represented as sitting under a gourd, 
which shelters him from the sun ; sometimes the 
gourd has withered, in punishment for his repining. 

One of the commonest subjects of painting in 
the Catacombs, one to be found in almost every 



184 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

one, and repeated in some again and again, is that 
of the three children of Babylon in the fiery fur- 
nace. Sometimes one, sometimes the three, are 
represented. They are always clothed, except in 
one instance, in Persian attire, in the cap, trousers, 
and vest, well known on ancient monuments. The 
history of Susanna is also beautifully symbolized. 
Her image is that of a lamb between two wolves, 
one on each side, representing the two elders. 
That told the whole story at once to the Christian, 
without the suggestion of any indelicate idea. 
After these comes Tobias, recognizable by the fish 
which he carries. As there is nothing especially 
instructing or picturesque in such a scene, it is 
evident that the frequent and various repetitions 
of it upon the cemeterial glass prove it to have a 
special, mystical purpose. Sometimes we have a 
representation of Tobias as a youth struggling with 
a fish standing up in the water, and then he is seen 
walking away with the vanquished monster. The 
simple explanation is that the fish w^as the sym^bol 
of Christ, and because this history brought that 
image of the fish before the eyes of His followers, 
it became a favorite theme. These are pretty 
nearly all the subjects from the Old Testament. 

I will now pass rapidly through those from the 
New. And first, we have a great many repre- 
sentations of our Lord as the Good Shepherd. 
Sometimes He is depicted in the attitude and with 
the emblems and attributes of Orpheus ; the wild 



THE LECTURE IN THE KOTUNDO. 185 

beasts being assembled together around^ and listen- 
ing to His music. He is playing upon a harp or a 
pipe. Sometimes they are not there, but the sheep 
are all around, looking up in His face with confi- 
dence and love. Though this is a common repre- 
sentation of the Good Shepherd, the most favorite, 
which is repeated again and again upon glass, is 
that of our Lord as the Shepherd, with a sheep 
over His shoulders, bearing it back to the fold. 
That was clearly the form in which the early Chris- 
tians loved to contemplate Him, and for a very 
good reason. It did not so much represent to them 
as it does to us the sinner received to mercy, but 
it delineated the rescuing from idolatry, heathen- 
ism, and infidelity, of their souls, which w^ould 
otherwise have perished. We never find a Chris- 
tian representation of our Lord which exhibits Him 
to us in a painful manner, or in any way which 
represents His justice ; it is always His mercy that 
is brought before us. You may indeed imagine 
what the ancient Christians, who saw the wide dis- 
tinction between infidelity and Christianity, con- 
sidered that they had escaped from, and what 
immense mercy that must have appeared to them 
which had rescued them. Li contemplating these 
particular representations, they felt with bitter grief 
how long they had remained wandering without 
pasture in the very depths of the desert of unbe- 
lief, where they must have perished, torn and rent 
by every suffering that sin and passion, like cruel 
16* 



186 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

thorns, could inflict upon the soul ; and then they 
considered with wonder and gratitude how, without 
the least merit upon their parts, they had been 
taken upon the shoulders of the Good Shepherd, 
and borne safely within the pale of His Church. 
No wonder that this is a common form under which 
those Christians loved to bring our Lord repeatedly 
before their minds. 

Our Saviour is also very frequently represented 
in other ways. He is often conversing with His 
Apostles, sometimes speaking with one or other of 
them, and sometimes seated with and instructing 
them. At times, however, though rarely. He is 
alone. Another representation of our Lord would 
easily lead into a long explanation. I will content 
myself with a brief outline. He is very frequently 
represented as standing alone with the wand in His 
hand, while around Him are seven baskets of bread, 
four on one side and three on the other, or two at 
each side and three below. The bread is piled up 
in them all, and we cannot explain this image in 
any other way, than by regarding it as represent- 
ing the multiplication of the loaves, symbolized by 
the seven baskets of fragments that were borne 
away after the miracle. There is an exactly cor- 
responding representation in which our Saviour 
stands in the midst of, and touches w^ith a wand, 
seven large jars, filled, we may suppose, with water ; 
exactly in the same way as in the Catacombs is rep- 
resented the changing of water into wine. The 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 187 

exact resemblance between the manner of deline- 
ating the two miracles shows that there was a con- 
nection between the multiplication of the bread and 
the transmutation of the water, in the minds of the 
faithful. But besides, another peculiarity of the 
second symbol is, that while the sacred text speaks 
only of six vessels of water at the marriage feast, 
here seven are invariably represented, and even 
placed so as to correspond with the seven baskets 
of bread. It is thus evident that the two miracles 
were meant to be exhibited as correlative, and no 
one can doubt but they presented to the Christian 
mind together the twofold elements which are 
found in the greatest of the sacraments, and 
brought to their loving thoughts that combination 
of power, wisdom, and love, whereby is wTOught 
the immense, unbounded multiplication of the 
bread of life and the wine that rejoices the heart 
of man, the food and drink of God's house, wdiich 
nourish to eternal life. 

Another choice subject often repeated w^as the 
curing of the paralytic. The patient is always rep- 
resented carrying his bed upon his shoulders, which 
conveys to us the lesson drawn by our Saviour from 
the miracle, that in a similar manner, He, the insti- 
tutor of the sacraments, could and would forgive us 
our sins. Besides the raising of Lazarus, w^hich I 
have already described, there are no other repre- 
sentations of our Lord's actions. But I must ob- 
serve that there are some large glasses, which have 



188 CAKDiNAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

in the centre a little medallion with a full ef^gj of 
some person upon it, and compartments all round, 
with figures having the feet towards the centre ; 
and sometimes a tablet bears the name of the per- 
son. In the compartments are painted six or eight 
scenes, from the Old and New Testaments. In 
these representations the two are mingled together, 
as if to show that the one glided gradually into the 
other ; the one showing Christianity foreshadowed, 
and the other manifested. 

Having glanced at the Scriptural glasses, we 
come to the third division, or those belonging to 
the history of the Church. Here the first figure, as 
we might naturally expect, is that of the Blessed 
Virgin. And, in fact, there is no saint so frequently 
represented as she, generally with her hands ex- 
tended, sometimes elevated from the elbows, with 
the palms expanded. This is an attitude of prayer, 
though not the ordinary one, because the form of 
the cross is the most usual. The name " Maria " is 
written distinctly over the figure. Occasionally she 
is a large central figure, with Peter on one side and 
Paul on the other. This must not be considered as 
deciding any thing of a controversial character, be- 
cause St. Agnes is represented in the same way, 
and so is another less known saint. It has been 
supposed that this placing of the Blessed Virgin as 
a particular object of devotion between the Apos- 
tles was meant to show her, as supported by the 
universal Church, which is represented by the 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 189 

Apostles. There is one peculiarity, however, through 
these glasses — the only saint that has ever what is 
called a " nimbus," or glory around the head, is the 
Blessed Virgin. It is not given even to the Apos- 
tles, still less to any other saint. Often a croAvn is 
also beside her, either on the ground or held over her. 
There are very numerous effigies of St. Peter 
and St. Paul. Sometimes they are represented at 
full length ; sometimes only their busts are given ; 
often with a crown between them. Sometimes one 
is at the right and sometimes the other, but the 
names are generally written over them ; occasion- 
ally, however, one is alone. There w^ere evidently 
in ancient times two types of these Apostles, one 
of each when young, and another representing 
them when old ; for we find them sometimes por- 
trayed with the hair and beard in full growth, and 
with all the appearances of young men. At other 
times we have them bald, and with the beard thin. 
You can trace in the Catacombs the distinction be- 
tween saints Peter and Paul, the same as they are 
distinguished in paintings at this day, so early did 
Christian art begin to assert its rights. Very often 
the two Apostles are represented, and so sometimes 
two other saints, with a small figure between them 
holding a crown over the head of each. Next to 
the Apostles comes, as I have said, St. Agnes, and 
then follow a great many other saints; sometimes 
two or three are together on one glass ; but it is 
not necessary to enumerate them further. 



190 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

The fourth class of representations includes all 
sorts of domestic and classical scenes. Some of 
these consist of single portraits, or of husband and 
wife together, with, evidently, their names, and an 
expression of affection or regard addressed to both. 
Sometimes we see a small altar, over which they 
are holding one another's right hand, with an in- 
scription which intimates that they are united in 
wedlock. Other domestic scenes represent to us a 
whole family : a man, evidently a nobleman, and 
his wife, richly dressed, and children standing be- 
fore them. The names of the parents and children 
are there. Those persons, however noble, could 
little have thought, when drinking from these 
glasses, that the day would come when their names 
would be again read, and records of the history of 
the Church would be filled up by means of this in- 
significant art, as it appeared to them, of ornament- 
ing glass. 

I have now gone through the main part of my 
subject ; but if there is any one here who is in the 
least tempted by what I have said to become a col- 
lector of this ancient glass, I must warn him to be- 
ware. For you must not think all the glasses 
published, or treasured up in museums, even in the 
Vatican, are genuine. When Christian antiquari- 
ans, two hundred years ago, began to seek for them, 
to collect them, and give large prices for them, 
there was no time lost in producing modern ones, 
and it requires a practised eye to detect the impos- 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 191 

ture, for they are executed by clever artists. They 
imitated closely the style of drawing, and copied 
the inscriptions, or made some certainly very unin- 
telligible ones, considering this, perhaps, the safest 
way to escape being found out. Be that as it may, 
they are found out, and the whole of the suspected 
glasses are now pretty well known ; and so far as 
the Vatican goes, they have been banished into a 
separate compartment; not, of course, destroyed, 
for that w^ould be barbarism ; but put together as 
suspected characters, and removed from the better 
companj^ of good and genuine Christian works. 

After having thus gone generally, and, perhaps, 
rather cursorily over my subject, and after having 
detained you so long, I will permit myself to make 
one or two reflections, which, perhaps, may not be 
of any very great value, but yet strike me as worth 
repeating. 

Is there any connection between those ancient 
glasses and modern manufactures ? This is a prac- 
tical age, and a great many people care very little 
about Avhat the ancient Christians did, unless, in 
some way or other, they materially benefited, or 
aided the advance of commerce, manufactures, or 
the arts of life. Now, I am glad to believe that 
they did all this, and that this purely Christian in- 
vention is operating at the present time upon an 
art which is every day developing in beauty and 
usefulness. I believe that this Christian glass, this 
exclusively Christian glasS; continued to be made 



192 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

and used up to, possibly, the middle of the fourth cen- 
turjj and it then disappeared. But what took its 
place ? The ancient Greeks and Romans were very 
proud of mosaic, or as they are better called '^ tessel- 
lated " pavements, for the ancients confined mosaic 
chiefly, if not exclusively, to the floor. It was only 
the Christians who first applied them to sacred rep- 
resentations upon w^alls. The pagan artists often 
contented themselves with a very coarse mosaic in 
black and white • but at any rate the ground into 
which they adapted their figures was ordinarily 
plain white, although the figures themselves might 
be beautiful, and show a great richness in the vari- 
ety of their colors. I do not believe that in all the 
Greek and Latin mosaics there is a single instance 
to be found of the use of gold, or of a gold mosaic 
ground. But at the very time when the art ap- 
peared to have ceased of placing a vitrified film or 
surface over the gold to preserve it, there came into 
use that very manufacture of Christian gold mosaic. 
For we find that beautiful leaf of gold, forming the 
golden groundwork of mosaic, very soon appear- 
ing in the east, where mosaic was carried to perfec- 
tion, and even in the west, as at Ravenna, and in 
the Roman basilicas. Let me remind you that 
what I stated we have been trying in London in 
vain, is just this art of making the gold show itself 
through a vitrified surface, so as to remain unalter- 
able. The process of enclosing, annealing, en- 
shrining the gold in the glass was intended to give 



THE LECTUEE IN THE ROTUNDO. 193 

its imperishable lustre to the unfading colors of the 
large figures which it surrounded. For while all 
the rest of the substances employed were mosaic, 
and so unalterable, the gold ground required equal 
durability of substance and of brilliancy to preserve 
them forever in permanence of place and of effect. 

The mosaics made at that early period are still as 
fresh as if put up a year ago. The groundwork, if 
it had been simply gilt, would have soon faded ; and. 
as in so many medigeval pictures on which a gold 
background was laid, would not by any means have 
preserved the color and appearance proper to that 
indestructible material of which I have been speak- 
ing. This was, therefore, only transferring to a 
larger sphere the same art. 

In the tenth century the church of St. Mark at 
Venice had to be repaired, after being burned down 
to the ground, and it was finished between the tenth 
and eleventh centuries. The whole of that church 
is filled with splendid mosaics of that age. As far 
as color goes the work cannot be surpassed. The 
artists were Greeks, who came over from Constan- 
tinople to execute it, and they brought with them 
this art of gold mosaic. There is a remarkable 
passage on the subject in an author of that very 
century, whose work has been lately published in 
France.* He is named Theophilus, and in his trear 
tise on this art he tells us, that in his time the 



* Theophile Pretre et Moine : Paris, 1840. 

17 



194 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour, in Ireland. 

Greeks used to make beautiful cups of sapphire, 
that is, of hjpis lazuli, which Beckman proves was the 
sapphire of the ancients* He tells us that they 
then took a piece of glass and laid gold leaf upon 
it, which they cut in the shape of what they wanted 
to represent, and then they prepared a liquid glass 
of a very fine quality, which they ground down on 
porph^^ry. When it was so prepared, they spread 
it over the gold. Then they put it in the same 
sort of furnace as we put our colored glass into, 
and brought it out vitrilied, so that the gold could 
never be removed. 

The Greeks, therefore, at that time understood 
the art of laying over the gold leaf a layer of glass. 
This was like the art of preparing the gold smalto 
for mosaic. It was to Venice that they first came, 
and gave their grandest specimen of that oriental 
art. These workmen settled in Venice ; and it is 
not at all improbable that it is owing to that cir- 
cumstance that Venice became the centre of beau- 
tiful glass manufacture, as it has continued to this 
day, in spite of the progress that has been made 
elsewhere in the art. You may often yet see old 
Venetian looking-glasses anterior to any modern 
manufacture. The art of introducing opaque sub- 
stances into the clear glass is, in its origin, exclu- 
sively Venetian. Those beautiful bowls, those ele- 
gant stems in which this practice is exhibited, are 
reckoned even yet extraordinary productions of art, 

* History of Inventions, vol. i., Art. Ultramarine. 



THE LECTURE IN THE ROTUNDO. 195 

which you find treasured up in museums^ and for 
which people pay almost their weight in gold, 
although a few years ago they were but compara- 
tively slightly valued. That was a Venetian art, 
closely allied with the mosaic art of uniting trans- 
parent and opaque glass. The Bohemians have 
imitated it and succeeded ; but I believe that in no 
other country but the two has the invention been 
brought to the perfection it originally attained in 
Venice, where it has continued to flourish to the 
present day. No doubt the connection between 
this art and the early Christian art of representing 
figures on glass may not be traced with perfect 
genealogical accuracy ; but it is quite as clear as 
the case of a person wishing to have well-filled quar- 
terings on a coat of arms, for whom the herald will 
succeed in tracing pretty well the chain, although 
he be obliged to refer to somewhat unconnected 
documents. I cannot but feel that those little 
glasses of the early Christians are thus the real root 
and beginning of the magnificent stained glass- 
works of the middle ages and our times j for, no 
doubt, the art of staining glass was a natural deri- 
vation from the art of vitrifying in colors ; it was a 
short step from the opaque colored glass on the Avail 
to the transparent in the windows, where the light 
shone through, instead of on, them — an art which 
began first by simple ornamentation before it ven- 
tured on complete pictures. 

I will now conclude by thanking you very sin- 



196 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

cerely for having listened so attentively to this very 
long address, and hoping that the time which you 
have spent here may not have been altogether un- 
profitable. For it never can be without its use to 
turn our thoughts back upon those first glorious 
ages of Christianity ; it never can be profitless to 
store our minds even with a single new idea con- 
cerning those noble confessors of the faith who are 
thus brought before us, not as a set of hard-headed, 
enduring, and inflexible men, always ready to suffer 
and to die for their faith, but rather as heroes pos- 
sessing the brightest intelligence, and carrying on 
beautiful arts in the very midst of death. If 
Archimedes has been so much admired for the 
calmness with which he met death, while engaged 
in solving a mathematical problem, surely they 
deserve no less honor who meekly awaited the 
cruellest death, engaged in works of taste and reli- 
gion so beautifully combined. But, in fact, they 
were only making themselves familiar with the 
beauties and glories of the kingdom after which 
they aspired, and to which they knew their gate was 
martyrdom. They knew not the day nor the hour 
when it would be thrown open to them. Could 
that grace come more opportunely to one of them 
than when his mind was peacefully engaged in con- 
ceiving the sacred scenes which he wished to ex- 
press, and his hand was unwaveringly employed in 
depicting them ? How easy for him to put down 
his graver and take up his palm, or stretch forth 



ADDRESS FROM THE SOCIETY. 197 

his neck to receive the very crown which he was 
just sketching over the head of a martyr or a vir- 
gin. Such an act was full of holy thoughts, and 
bred the sublimest aspirations ; nor can it be without 
its fruits to know that faith does not quench, but 
give life to, the cultivation of the beautiful arts, 
and that one may be equally ready to illustrate or 
adorn it ; or, if it so please God, to die for it. 

ADDRESS FROM THE SOCIETY. 

Cardinal Wiseman was conducted after the lecture to 
one of the large rooms adjacent to the Round Room. 
Beneath a handsomely upholstered canopy were placed 
chairs of state on a carpeted dais. Tiie centre chair was 
occupied by his Eminence, that on the right by the Bishop 
of Clonfert, and that on the left by the Right Rev. Dr. 
Whelan, Bishop of Bombay. There was a large assem- 
blage around the front of the dais, composed of clergy 
and laity, desirous of witnessing, or, as was the case with 
many, of assisting at the interesting proceedings of the 
presentation of an address from the Society of St. Yincent 
de Paul to the Cardinal. 

Address of the President and Members of the Society of 
St. Vincent de Paul, in Dublin, to His Eminence the 
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the President 
and members of the Society of St. Yincent de Paul, in 
Dublin, humbly beg leave to approach your Eminence, 
and with pi'ofound veneration and heartfelt joy to congrat- 
ulate you on your arrival in this city. Recollecting the 
many dark and dreary years whicli have passed over our 
country since it was last honored by the presence of a 
Prince of the Church, and a member of the Sacred Col- 
lege of Cardinals, we cannot fail to regard the visit of 
17* 



19'8 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

your Eminence as a singularly auspicious event, and as a 
harbinger of brighter and better days for the professors 
of that Faith, which, in spite of proscriptions, and confis- 
cations, and penal laws, has been handed down from 
father to son, as an heirloom of inestimable value, and 
which is still preserved and cherished by our countrymen 
as a precious and sacred deposit. 

But if we share in the joy of the entire Catholic body 
at the presence of your Eminence amongst us, how much 
more ought we not to hail it in our capacities as members 
of a Society which has received at the hands of the Holy 
See so many and so special marks of its favor and 
predilection ? 

At our first entrance into its ranks, and thenceforward 
in every step of our progress, we have found our path 
strewn with blessings and privileges conferred on our 
Works by the sainted successors of Saint Peter ; and if 
for a single moment we have felt our footsteps faltering, 
or our zeal growing cold, we have at once been stimulat- 
ed, warmed, and invigorated by the recollection that we 
have had conceded and confirmed to us, under the magic 
ring of the fisherman — that ring which the lapse of nine- 
teen centuries has neither tarnished or diminished — 
those unpurchaseable, because priceless, treasures of 
God's holy Church, which are ever at hand to sustain and 
encourage those who have recourse to them. In a like 
spirit of affection to that manifested towards us by the 
Head of the Church, we have on this evening beheld one 
of that Church's most illustrious princes and most distin- 
guished luminaries graciously condescending to unfold 
some of those literary treasures with which his great mind 
is so richly stored, for the noble purpose of forwarding a 
work which, with humble reliance on the mercy and 
goodness of God, we have ventured to undertake for the 
protection of the helpless and fatherless orphan. With 
unflagging interest and entranced delight we have listened 
to your Eminence's eloquent and erudite lecture ; we 
have felt our piety and veneration called forth as we 
found ourselves conducted by so faithful a guide through 
those wondrous recesses, where the deep and everlasting 



CARDINAL WISEMAN'S REPLY. 199 

foundations of our liolj religion were laid and cemented 
in the blood of heroic virgins and intrepid martyrs. 

For tlie signal favor this evening conferred upon our 
Society by your Eminence, we beg leave to tender the 
expression of our deep and abiding gratitude. There is 
but one other return which, in addition to our gratitude, 
we can offer to your Eminence ; but it is one which, we 
doubt not, you will accept as the best in our power to 
bestow. We shall not fail to impress upon the memory 
of each of the orphans to whom shelter and protection 
shall be afforded within the walls of our new institution, 
that among his many kind benefactors, he is largely in- 
debted to the benevolent advocacy of an illustrious Car- 
dinal for the asylum he enjoys ; and every time that those 
helpless innocents shall raise their little hands and guile- 
less hearts to that Father who never abandons the father- 
less, we will teach them to invoke abundant blessings, even 
in this world, upon the head of their great benefactor ; 
and we will ask them to pray that guardian angels may 
hover round the closing scene of that good man's earthly 
existence, and may bear his spirit to that blessed firmament 
where it shall shine as a star for all eternity. 

In conclusion, we humbly supplicate the blessing of 
your Eminence upon ourselves, our families, and our 
works. 

Signed on behalf of the members of the Society of St. 
Vincent de Paul, in Dublin. 

John Bradstreet, Preside?it of the Council, &c. 
Charles Cavanagh, Vice-President of the Council, &c. 

Sir John Bradstreet, Bart., the president, read the 
address. 

His Eminence said : — 

The nature of the duty which they had imposed 
upon him that night prevented him from expressing 
his feelings towards the Society at any length. 
But he could not take leave of its members with- 



200 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

out, however imperfectly, stating the great interest 
he felt in their good work, as well as the esteem 
he entertained for those who gave the Society their 
active support and cooperation. He regarded it as 
a blessing to any city to possess the institution of 
the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, for it was a 
most powerful means of effecting good ; and this 
sentiment was so spread abroad, he might say 
throughout Europe, that there was scarcely any 
one who was interested in the welfare of his coun- 
try or native place that did not desire to see estab- 
lished in it this Society. He was a few years ago 
in a diocese in the north of France, and was speak- 
ing to the bishop on this subject. "I thank God," 
said the prelate, " that there is not a town in my 
diocese in which I have not the Society of St. 
Vincent de Paul." He added that this was not the 
case for a time in one town, the mayor of which — 
and in this respect it was very unlike the city of 
Dublin — was not one who either by precept or 
example did homage to religion. He rather af- 
fected the tone of a freethinker, not that he was 
in reality so, but he gave himself the airs of a man 
who was above the manifestation of religious feel- 
ings. Well, it so happened that the military com- 
mandant of the district paid a visit to the town. 
All kinds of attention and honor were paid him, 
and every means was employed to show the public 
esteem for one filling so high and responsible a 
position. At a grand entertainment, the mayor. 



CARDINAL Wiseman's reply. 201 

addressing him; said he should Hke his advice as to 
what could be done for the town ; he enumerated 
the various improvements which he had caused to 
be made, and desired to know if the commandant 
thought there was any thing necessary to perfect 
what had been already accomplished. The com- 
mandant paused for a moment, and then asked the 
mayor, " Have you here the Society of St. Vincent 
de Paul ? " The mayor replied that they had not. 
"Then," said the other, "I would advise you to 
have it established the first thing, for it will do 
more good than any thing else I can suggest." 
The consequence was, the Society was established, 
to the joy of the good bishop, who up to that time 
had been vainly struggling for that happy result. 
But it is not every where, as in this city, that the 
Society is so flourishing, and is enabled to do so 
much, even to the establishment of orphanages, in 
addition to its labors for the relief of the poor ; so 
that it is indeed a real benefactor, not alone to the 
city, but to the whole country. He was sure every 
priest in this arch-diocese, beginning with the arch- 
bishop, and also the laity, who have had opportuni- 
ties of judging, will bear witness that the Society 
is one of the greatest blessings the city enjoys. 
He should be glad if what little service he had 
endeavored to render should be an encouragement 
to them, if it do nothing more ; and if his words 
could cheer them, he assured them of his warmest 
hope that they would go on and prosper in their 



202 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

godlike mission of charity, overcoming all those 
difficulties, pecuniary and others, which we have all 
to encounter, till at length, with God's blessing, 
every difficulty should melt away as clay yields 
before the torrent of waters. 

His Eminence, on retiring to the residence of his Grace, 
the Archbishop of Dublin, was followed by an immense 
multitude, who cheered him repeatedly. 

HIS EMINENCE'S VISIT TO THE PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 

In compliance with a kind invitation, forwarded through 
the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor, by the Rev. Dr. 
Todd, S.F.T.C.D., his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop 
of Westminster visited on Tuesday the Royal Irisli 
Academy, Dawson Street, and the Library and Museum 
Buildings of Trinity College. His Eminence left the 
residence of his Grace the Lord Archbishop, Eccles Street, 
at a quarter to twelve o'clock, in the state chariot of the 
Lord Mayor, which was in waiting to receive him. His 
Eminence was accompanied by the Rev. E. L. Clifford, 
the Rev. Mr. Burke, and the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor. 
His Eminence first proceeded to 

THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, 

where he was received by the Rev. Dr. Todd (president) ; 
Mr. Cibborn, Secretary, and Professor Curry. His Emi- 
nence, after expressing his acknowledgments to the Rev. 
President for liis courtesy and kind attention, was con- 
ducted through the library and museum of the institution. 
The rare old books and manuscripts were shown to him, 
and the lucid details of their character and history given 
by the accomplished archaeologist, the Rev. Dr. Todd, 
which seemed to afford his Eminence tlie deepest gratifi- 
cation. He examined the collection of antiquities in the 
museum, and expressed himself highly pleased at their 
classification and arrangement by Dr. Wilde, to whom was 



TRINITY COLLEGE. 203 

intrusted the arduous labor of compiling the new cata- 
logue. After remaining for nearly an hour his Eminence 
took his leave, and proceeded to 

TRINITY COLLEGE. 

On entering the College Square a large number of the 
students who had assembled saluted his Eminence most 
respectfully as the carriage drove up to the entrance of 
the library. On leaving the carriage, in company with 
the same gentlemen, and the Lord Mayor, his Eminence 
was received by the Rev. Dr. Todd, as librarian of the 
University, and the assistant librarian. A large crowd of 
students and other gentlemen, who had congregated round 
the entrance to the library, sought to gain admittance, 
but no persons were permitted to enter except his Emi- 
nence and the party who accompanied him on his visit. 
The fine proportions and the splendid black oak carving 
of the library elicited warm expressions of admiration 
from his Eminence, who entered into animated conversa- 
tion with the Rev. Dr. Todd. The rich and varied 
treasures, in the shape of manuscripts, illuminated missals, 
and other religious books of the monastic period, which 
the College is so fortunate as to possess, were all shown to 
him. He closely examined the celebrated Salisbury 
Missal, and the not less celebrated " Book of Kells," and 
" Book of Armagh," and he paid particular care in look- 
ing over the four gospels said to have been written by St. 
Columba ; the missal of the diocese of Killaloe, known as 
" The Gospels of Domiah," by whom it was transcribed ; 
the book of St. Alban's, and a Lollard Commentary on 
the Psalms, in Latin and English, with a commentary 
attributed to Wycliffe. A gorgeously illuminated missal 
of the year 1456 attracted the particular attention of his 
Eminence, who expressed himself much pleased with its 
beautiful lettering, and with the surpassing beauties of 
the margins of its illuminated pages. Having remained 
for nearly an hour in the library, his Eminence and party 
were conducted to the new Museum Building, and, as he 
proceeded through the grounds, he was received with all 
the external evidences of respect by crowds of students 



204 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

and gentlemen not belonging to the College who had as- 
sembled for the purpose of seeing his Eminence. The 
hall of the Museum Building seemed to take him by 
surprise, and he spoke in terms of high praise of the stair- 
cases, the various colored Irish marbles in the pillars, and 
the stone carving of their capitals. He inquired of the 
Eev. Dr. Todd who was the architect, and was informed 
that it was Sir Thomas Deane, of Cork, who had designed 
it. He was conducted through the lecture rooms, and on 
taking his leave of the Rev. Dr. Todd, he expressed his 
acknowledgments, and spoke of the gratification which 
he was afforded by his visit. As his Eminence drove 
through the outer gate into College Green he was loudly 
cheered by a large crowd who had waited for his return 
from the College. His Eminence next proceeded up 
Grafton Street through Stephen's Green, to visit 

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. 

On arriving he was received by the Rev. Professor 
O'Reilly, the Rev. Professor Quin, the Rev. Dr. Doyle, 
Professors Ornsby, Curry, M'Swiney, M'Dermott, and 
Mr. Scrattan, Secretary, all wearing their academic 
costume. He was shown through the lecture halls, 
library, museum, &c., and highly admired their several 
arrangements. He next proceeded to visit the beautiful 
interior of the University Church, and appeared to be 
much struck with the excellent taste displayed in its 
splendid decorations. A number of persons who had 
been engaged at their devotions in the church when his 
Eminence entered came forward and asked his blessing, 
which he conferred upon them as they knelt around him. 
The great want of the University Church did not escape 
the observation of his Eminence, namely, a suitable porch 
at the principal entrance. The want is now being sup- 
plied by the Rev. Dr. Anderdon, who has taken the 
responsibility on himself of erecting a beautiful Doric 
portico at the entrance of the sacred edifice, and we are 
certain the confidence which the Rev. Dr. Anderdon has 
in the generous aid of the people to enable him to carry 
his intentions into effect is not misplaced. After retiring 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 205 

from the church his Eminence partook of some refresh- 
ment. Before taking his leave he made several inquiries 
concerning the University, and expressed himself highly 
gratified at the progress which it had made. He said 
that he highly approved of the establishment of evening 
classes in the University, and was much pleased on being 
informed that these classes would be resumed on the 
opening of the winter session next month. His Eminence 
gave his benediction to the professors and other gentlemen 
who surrounded him as he left the University. He re- 
turned to the residence of his Grace the Archbishop 
shortly before five o'clock. 

ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 

His Eminence proceeded on Wednesday by special train 
from the Broadstone, at a quarter before ten o'clock, A.M., 
to Maynooth, for the purpose of paying a visit to the 
Royal College of St. Patrick. He was accompanied by 
the Bishop of Clonfert, the Bishop of Ferns, the Bev. E. 
Lambert Clifford, Rev. Mr. Burke, and several other 
clergymen. At the Maynooth railway station he was re- 
ceived by the Very Rev. Dr. Russell, President, and a 
number of clergymen, and conducted to the carriage in 
waiting to convey him to the college, where suitable 
preparations had been made for his coming. There was 
a large concourse of the towns-people assembled, who 
cheered heartily, and the band belonging to the town 
played appropriate airs during the progress to the college. 
The reception given to his Eminence passing through 
Maynooth was most cordial. The professors and the stu- 
dents, over five hundred in number, in full academic 
costume, were in waiting within the college grounds, and 
accorded to their illustrious visitor a thoroughly Irish 
welcome. Amongst the professors present were — 

The Yery Rev. Dr. Whitehead, Vice-President ; Rev. 
Mr. O'Kane, Rev. Mr. Hackett, Rev. Mr. Quinn, Rev. 
Mr. Hammond, Rev. Dr. O'Hanlon, Prefect of the Dun- 
boyne Establishment ; Rev. Dr. Murray, Rev. Dr. CroUy, 
Rev. Dr. Neville, Rev. Dr. Molloy, Rev. Dr. Callan, Rev. 
Dr. McCarthy, Rev. Dr. Jennings, Rev. Dr. M'Auley, 
18 



206 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Rev. Mr. Gargan, E-ev. Mr. Tully, Rev. Mr. O'Don- 
nell, &G. 

As soon as his Eminence had robed, he proceeded to 
the chapel, and presided there at a grand Pontifical High 
Mass in honor of the glorious Feast of the Nativity of 
the Blessed Virgin. The celebrant was the Right Rev. 
Dr. Whelan. There was a crowded attendance in the 
chapel. 

At the gospel his Eminence preached a learned and 
impressive discourse, beautifully adapted both to the 
festival kept by the Church on that day, and to the 
audience whom he addressed. 

He took his text from the epistle of the feast as 
follows : " Ego sapientia habito in consilio et eruditis 
inter sum cogitationibuSj^ and commenced by observing 
that — 

The day was for the ecclesiastics of that estab- 
lishment a double festival, one which they enjoyed 
in common with the rest of the Christian world, 
and one that was peculiar to themselves. In com- 
mon with the whole Church, they celebrated on 
that day the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother 
of God, and amongst themselves it was the first 
day of a new year of study. The two declarations 
of the text he had quoted might be said to have a 
peculiar reference to the festival which belonged 
to themselves. The Blessed Virgin on the day of 
her nativity came forth to the world adorned with 
all the graces, all the qualities of divine wisdom. 
She possessed all the preternatural gifts of which 
the creature was susceptible. In that college they 
were commencing a year of ecclesiastical studies, 
during which they were to endeavor to acquire an 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 207 

accumulation of the gifts and qualities which she 
had at once obtained in their plenitude. That 
•wisdom referred to was described by the inspired 
writer in language that would admit of the strictest 
modern analysis. It was a wisdom which played 
with the works of God at the creation. It was 
then joyful near the throne of God, admiring its 
own development, admiring the production of the 
beauty reflected upon the cradle of the universe. 
It was the same divine wisdom which thus assisted 
at the throne of the Almighty at the solemn period 
of the creation, that might be described as aiding 
in the formation of ecclesiastical studies and the 
arrangement of ecclesiastical life, and in the fram- 
ing of the rules by which that great establishment 
was governed in consilio ego sapicntia Jiabiio. 

His Eminence enlarged with much power and beauty 
of thought upon this branch of his subject, and then pro- 
ceeded to show the greatness of the respect and reverence 
which should be paid to all the manifestations of that 
divine wisdom, particularly to its embodiment in the 
rides by which that community was governed. 

They might be assured that this divine wisdom 
assisted at the council of the prelates who formed 
those rules, and that it aided and guided their 
superiors in the conduct and administration of an 
establishment devoted to the promotion of science 
and literature, with a view to the giving greater 
honor and glory to God. It w\as more, however, 
with the second portion of the text {et eruditis 



208 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

intersiim cogitationihis) that the audience before him 
had to do. One of the great objects of their 
presence in that establishment was to acquire 
knowledge ; and the spirit of wisdom, of the ope- 
rations of which he had spoken, was ready to assist 
them in the prosecution of their studies. They 
had only to appeal for it, and it would be at hand, 
although invisible, like those guardian angels that 
had them in charge, but it was not the less really 
present to enlighten and sustain them. They were 
to understand that this assistance would be limited 
to the studies directed to the purpose of their 
vocation. 

■ Having amplified with great felicity of idea and expres- 
sion this portion of the theme, his Eminence went on to 
say that — 

If in a moment of impatience or exhaustion they 
were tempted to lay aside the books of severe 
study, and the works prescribed for the imparting 
to them what might be called professional knowl- 
edge, and instead to take up frivolous literature, 
they could not expect the assistance of the divine 
wisdom of which he had spoken. 

The Cardinal, after dealing in a masterly manner with 
the first two points — the cooperation of the divine wis- 
dom on the framing of governing rules, and in the forma- 
tion of their studies — next referred to the aid given by 
it to the professors in the performance of their important 
duties. He said — 

Our divine Lord appeared once in a chair of in- 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 209 

striiction when a child of twelve years of age, and 
He gave such answers to the questions put to Him 
as should have satisfied all fair, unprejudiced minds 
that He was the living embodiment of the light 
that cometh down from heaven, and enlighteneth 
every man that cometh into this world. Their 
professors having acquired, by the aid of the same 
divine wisdom, a mastery over ecclesiastical and 
other cognate sciences, were to them so many 
living lessons of that wisdom. 

After eulogizing the labors and zeal of the professors, 
his Eminence adverted to the nature of the studies to 
which their time should be devoted. He had said that 
they were to be occupied with what was severe, and with 
what might be called strictly professional studies ; but lie 
was not to be understood as suggesting that what was 
called vforldly knowledge was beyond the circle of their 
education. They should endeavor to qualify themselves 
to address persons of every rank and every degree of 
intelligence in such a manner as to lead them to the ser- 
vice of Grod. Turning from the mere intellectual devel- 
opment, as it were, of the Almighty wisdom, to the 
important question of its working in the ecclesiastical 
mind, his Eminence observed that — 

Knowledge would be useless, unless, as with the 
Mother of God, the feast of whose Nativity they 
were celebrating, it was sanctified by having it 
always directed to the honor and glory of her 
divine Son. When she became conscious that the 
divine wisdom was incarnate in her, all her thoughts 
were from that moment centred upon Him. The 
same should be the case with ecclesiastics in the 
18* 



210 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

prosecution of their studies ; the divine Eedeemer 
should be always before their mind. Like St. 
ThomaSj the crucifix should be always before the 
student, and he would have reason to acknowledge 
that more from the foot of the cross than from any 
efforts of his own had he derived that wisdom 
which maketh us wise to everlasting life, and saves 
the soul. 



The preceding is a very brief sketch of the leading 
points of this very able discourse. It was heard with 
earnest attention. 

His Eminence gave the solemn Pontifical blessing after 
High Mass. At half-past two o'clock the students assem- 
bled in the new library, a large and very fine building, for 
the purpose of assisting at the presentation of an address. 
The whole body of students were present, and at the 
head of the hall were seated the professors. On a dais 
was erected a throne for his Eminence, surmounted by a 
handsome canopy. Chairs were placed on the dais to 
the right and left of the throne for the bishops. The hall 
was decorated witli festoons of flowers. His Eminence, 
on entering the hall, was greeted with hearty and renewed 
bursts of applause. He was preceded by the professors, 
the president, and the bishops, viz., the Lord Bisliop of 
Meath, Lord Bishop of Clonfert, Lord Bishop of Kerry, 
Lord Bishop of Ferns, and Lord Bishop of Bombay. Their 
lordships wore soutans, rochets, and mozettas. A large 
number of clergy were also present, including the Yery 
Rev. Dean Meyler, P.P. ; Rev. Dr. Murray, secretary to 
the Archbishop ; Rev. Mr. Irwin, Rev. Dr. Woodlock, 
President of All Hallows, and the President of Carlow 
College. When his Eminence had taken his place on the 
throne. 

The Very Rev. Dr. Russell, President of the College, 
advanced and read the following address : — 



EOYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 211 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the president, 
masters, professors, and scholars of the Royal College of 
St. Patrick, humbly acknowledge with warm and grateful 
welcome the honor of your Eminence's visit to our 
college. We have cordially shared in the joyous greet- 
ings which have every where met your Eminence during 
your stay in Ireland ; but within our own walls we owe to 
you a special expression of our feelings. To the Catholic 
people of Ireland an event so unwonted as a visit of a 
Prince of the Church and member of the august senate of 
tlie Supreme Pastor, seems in a manner to bring home 
the presence of the Holy Father himself. It exhibits 
almost as a sensible reality the cherished doctrine of union 
with Rome, and draws closer and more firmly the ties of 
love and duty which have ever bound Ireland to the chair 
of St. Peter. But in a house of ecclesiastical studies such 
as our college, your Eminence, besides your high rank 
and sacred character, possesses special claims to admira- 
tion and homage. To us the sacred purple comes in 
your Eminence's person invested with those exalted gifts 
which we are especially bound to honor, and which it 
should be our holy ambition to cultivate — sanctified by 
every virtue which becomes the ecclesiastic — adorned by 
all the accomplishments of a Christian scholar, and en- 
deared by every personal quality which makes virtue 
amiable, or lends grace and influence to learning. For 
us, therefore, your visit, independently of the honor 
which it brings, is in itself a high lesson. To the profes- 
sor it is a living embodiment of the sciences he has to 
teach. To the student it is an example of the virtue and 
the attainments to which he is bound to aspire. To both 
alike, while it recalls the memory of the ancient union of 
the schools of England and of Ireland, it will ever be a 
grateful source of honorable pride, and of admiring though 
humble emulation. While, therefore, in common with 
our countrymen, we offer to your Eminence that respect- 
ful homage which your sacred dignity commands, we beg 
you also to accept the warm expression of our earnest 
admiration of your exemplary piety, and of that profoimd 
and varied learning, the fruits of which we have so long 



212 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

enjoyed in the study of your writings ; and, while humbly 
saluting the sacred purple, we beg your Eminence's bene- 
diction, we pray the Giver of all good gifts long to pre- 
serve you in health and happiness, for the advancement 
of sacred science, and for the glory and edification of the 
Church. 

Cardinal Wiseman said in reply, addressing the presi- 
dent, the professors and students, that : — 

He scarcely knew how to convey his thanks for 
their kind address. While^, on one hand^ he was 
glad to receive from them every kind expression 
which could tend to establish a bond of mutual 
interest and feeling between them, yet he could 
not but know that he must disclaim the many per- 
sonal flattering observations contained in the ad- 
dress. It would certainly be a very gratifying 
circumstance to him^ and one that would endear 
that day very much to his memory, if his presence 
there could be productive of the slightest good, or 
in any way encourage them to pursue with more 
zeal the noble career before them. He could, at all 
events, bring with him the experience and observa- 
tion of some years, and was sure the venerable 
prelates present would confirm any thing he might 
say, as the result of that experience, with respect 
to the importance of a solid and general education 
as a foundation for their theological studies. 

It was necessary to unite the two great branches 
of knowledge, the religious and what they called 
the secular, and this union was one of the great 
advantages the students enjoyed there. The ten- 



EOYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 213 

dency of the day was to disassociate religious from 
scientific knowledge ; and it was only by priests 
being full and complete masters of both, that they 
would be enabled to arrest the mad career of 
merely profane and irreligious learning, and pre- 
vent their injurious consequences to society. No 
one could check the evil unless he was master of 
the whole subject, in the same way that one 
mounted on a charger could not conduct and guide 
into the proper course his w^ild career, unless he 
held the rein and was master of it. Being thor- 
oughly acquainted with the various branches of 
science, they could speak with authority when pro- 
claiming that religion and human knowledge could 
not properly, or with safety, be disunited ; but if 
not possessed of this superiority, their authority or 
power in combating this evil would, of course, be 
slight. He rejoiced at the pleasure he had derived 
from being acquainted with many of their profess- 
ors for years past; and from his knowledge of 
them he could state that no men could be more 
competent to instruct, whether in theology or in 
science ; they would bear comparison with the pro- 
fessors of any ecclesiastical or literary establish- 
ment which he knew. 

He was therefore convinced that, from the sound 
scientific instruction and orthodox theological train- 
ing the students received, they would be perfectly 
enabled to maintain the interests, not only of reli- 
gion in general, but of the true religion throughout 



214 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Ireland. If his coming amongst them should stim- 
ulate or encourage them in their efforts to render 
themselves masters of the various kinds of knowl- 
edge imparted, and to use them well for the pro- 
motion of true religion and education, he would 
rejoice that such should be the case, in addition to 
the pleasure he had proposed to himself in coming 
there, which had been more than realized. 

It was necessary for him to express his un- 
bounded satisfaction at all that had been done since 
he was there last, a great many years ago. Within 
the walls of that splendid building, although as yet 
unfinished, the future priests of Ireland would com- 
mune in their readings with the wisdom of the 
living and of the dead ; and for this purpose he 
hoped that the library would be ere long completed 
as it should be, and also that there would be raised 
a church equal to the requirements of that great 
establishment, in which the mysteries and cere- 
monies of their holy religion could be celebrated 
with becoming dignity and splendor. Speaking of 
the mission aw^aiting the students whom he ad- 
dressed, and who were to supply the places of 
clergy passing gradually away from this earthly 
scene of their labors, his Eminence said that, how- 
ever great was the prosperity of religion on every 
side, it was but in its infancy as compared with the 
development and extension which would undoubt- 
edly take place in Ireland. Those who had gone 
before had sown in sorrow and tears, but he 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 215 

trusted and believed those he addressed were des- 
tined to reap and enjoy an abundant harvest of re- 
ligion now rising up on every side. Every thing 
he had seen in Ireland convinced him that never 
was the faith stronger or more full of vigor than it 
was at that moment. An improvement as great as 
that in the productions of the soil was taking place 
in the Irish people. There had been a blight upon 
the one, oppression and misery upon the other, and 
an appearance of wasting away, but through the 
Divine Providence this was at an end, and the har- 
vest of the fields and of human souls was rich and 
abundant for the reapers. 

There was nothino; but the Providence of God to 
account for the great religious improvement every 
w^here going forward. Not even the immense zeal 
of the prelates of the Irish Church, nor the ex- 
traordinary energy and activity of their clergy, nor 
the growing intelligence of the people, could ac- 
count for the wonderful progress Catholicity was 
making in the land ; the cause was the blessing of 
the Almighty now shed upon them after they had 
been subjected to years of trial. The beautiful 
ecclesiastical edifices rising up on every side owed 
not their existence to large contributions from the 
state or from the w^ealthy, nor their architectural 
beauty to efforts to create an exalted or refined 
taste in such things. The people did not rest satis- 
fied with merely having a shelter for their worship, 
and a poor altar on a trifling elevation upon which 



216 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

to have performed tlie sacred offices of their holy 
religion. In addition to magnificent churches were 
to be seen daily coming into existence new educa- 
tional establishments, new hospitals, and various 
charitable institutions for the benefit of the poor of 
Christ — results that the great zeal of the bishops 
and the active exertions of the clergy would not 
have sufficed to bring about, remarkable as they 
were, if it had not been that God had blessed their 
zeal and their labor by infusing a still stronger feel- 
ing of religion into the souls of his faithful people. 
The future priests of Ireland should prepare 
themselves to be equal to what was before them. 
They should be prepared for obstacles different 
from those their predecessors had to encounter in 
their youth. The whole country was rising above 
the reach of paltry persecution in any shape. In- 
dividual efforts would not be able to stop the great 
tide of religious liberty that was flowing, and no 
public authority would attempt to stem the course 
of a nation. Therefore, they (the students) would 
not have to encounter what those who went before 
them had to battle with, and often had their ener- 
gies cramped and circumscribed by. They would 
have difficulties of another sort to meet. No doubt 
they would have to cope with infidelity in many 
forms ; indifference, coldness, worldliness, and that 
utilitarian and pleasure-seeking spirit which would 
make people ask what was the use of building a 
church so long as a railroad was wanted, or why 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. 217 

establish a convent where there was not yet a thea- 
tre ? This was what they would have to meet ; 
and let them, therefore, arm themselves so as to be 
ready to meet the evil upon at least equal ground, 
and be prepared to answer all that the world would 
seek to urge to the prejudice or detriment of religion. 
For this purpose theological learning alone would 
not suffice; they should be also learned in the 
sciences, in the various branches of w^hat was prac- 
tical knowledge in the world. While he congratu- 
lated them upon being in the hands of such pro- 
fessors as he sanv before him, and upon the ample 
means they possessed for acquiring knowledge, and 
being well prepared for a career of great useful- 
ness to the people who would be committed to 
their care, he would exhort them to look forward 
anxiously and earnestly to what was before them, 
and not think that their duty was fulfilled when 
particular functions had been performed, but to feel 
themselves bound to devote their whole and entire 
time to their sacred mission, to make, as it were^ 
the sacrifice of their whole life to it from the first 
day they entered upon it. Many of them, he 
doubted not, would go forth to the world to con- 
tinue that glorious mission which God seemed to 
have given to Ireland — that her priests should 
bear His holy faith to distant shores, and whether 
called to the east or to the west, they would be 
ready to lay down even their lives, if necessary, in 
the execution of their sacred trust. 
19 



218 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

The eloquent and impressive address of his Eminence, 
of which the above is the substance, was enthusiastically 
received by the students. 

In the evening his Eminence was entertained at a ban- 
quet by the president. Upwards of seventy prelates, 
clergy, and gentry sat down. The Lord Mayor was 
amongst those present. 

After nightfall the college and also the town of May- 
nooth were handsomely illuminated in honor of the visit 
of the Cardinal. A band paraded the town playing fa- 
vorite airs, and there was general rejoicing. 

CHRISTIAN brothers' SCHOOLS. 

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, accompanied 
by the Rev. E. Lambert Clifford, on his arrival at the 
Broadstone Terminus from Maynooth, on Friday, the 
tenth, was met at the terminus by his Grace the Arch- 
bishop, who conveyed them in his carriage to the estab- 
lishment of the Christian Brothers, North Richmond 
Street, which his Eminence, was anxious to see. They 
were received at the principal entrance by the superiors 
of the institution, who conducted them through the 
various parts of the building — the chapel, study-hall, 
library, refectory, and with all which, as well as with the 
entire arrangement of the establishment, his Eminence 
expressed himself highly pleased. He was particularly 
struck with the chaste and beautiful architecture of the 
community chapel, and repeatedly expressed his admira- 
tion of the taste displayed in its varied decorations. They 
next proceeded to the schools, in which seven hundred 
clean, cheerful, and healthy-looking boys were in attend- 
ance. The school-rooms, which are six in number, have 
been lately painted and elegantly fitted out, and, being 
divided by glass partitions, through which the entire range 
of classes may be seen at one view, they presented a most 
striking and interesting appearance. His Eminence was 
conducted to the principal school-room, in which are 
taught various branches of mathematical and mechanical 
science. On his entrance all rose from their seats and 



CHRISTIAN brothers' SCHOOLS. 219 

knelt down to receive his benediction, after which a select 
class sang a very beautiful hymn, said to be the composi- 
tion of his Eminence in praise of the Sovereign Pontiff. 
Classes were then examined in history, geometry, mensu- 
ration, and various other matters, his Grace the Arch- 
bishop taking part in the examination. At the conclusion 
of the exercise the following address to his Eminence was 
read by one of the pupils : — 

To his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman. 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the pupils of 
the Christian Brothers' Schools, Richmond Street, Dublin, 
beg leave to address your Eminence, and, with feelings of 
profound respect and veneration for your sacred character, 
to tender you the expression of our heartfelt gratitude for 
the high honor conferred upon us and upon our instruc- 
tors by this gracious visit of your Eminence. We are not 
altogether ignorant, young as we are, of the distinguished 
career of your Eminence, and of the vast services which 
you have rendered to our holy religion. Many of us 
have read your unrivalled " Lectures on the Connection 
between Science and Revealed Religion," that matchless 
production by which (to use the words of the illustrious 
Pius YIII., in reference to another of your works) " you 
have robbed Egypt of its spoil, and showed that it be- 
longed to the people of God." These lectures alone, 
independently of your other numerous and learned 
productions, would justly entitle your Eminence to the 
lasting gratitude of mankind. More than two hundred 
years have already passed since a Cardinal Prince of the 
Church landed on our shores. Any member of the Sacred 
College visiting this country, after the lapse of so long a 
period, would most assuredly meet with a cordial recep- 
tion ; but when in the person of your Eminence we recog- 
nize one whose transcendent talents have obtained for 
him a world-wide reputation — when we behold in you 
the noble champion of that faith for which our fathers 
bled ; and when, in addition to all this, we remember 
that this dear old land of ours justly claims you as one of 
her own race, we are not surprised at the unbounded 



220 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

enthusiasm with which your presence has been hailed in 
every part of the country visited by your Eminence. In 
this just tribute — the outburst of a nation's homage — 
so well merited by your Eminence, we most heartily join, 
and bid you, in the simple but expressive language of our 
ancestors, a cead mille faille. This day shall form a 
memorable epoch in our lives ; we shall never forget it ; 
and in whatever clime our future lot may be cast, whether 
in this our native soil, or in a foreign land, we shall 
always cherish the grateful remembrance of this honored 
visit, paid the institution in which we were educated, by 
the illustrious Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. 
(Signed), 

The Pupils of the Christian Brothers' Schools, 
Richmond Street, Dublin. 

His Eminence, in reply, said : — 

He felt very grateful to them for the kind feel- 
ings which they manifested towards them. He 
regretted he had but a few moments to make them 
a hurried visit. He was highly pleased with the 
knowledge they displayed of the various subjects 
they were learning under the excellent direction of 
the Christian Brothers, and he should be much 
gratified if he could possibly prolong his visit to 
hear them examined at greater length. 

Having dwelt for some time on the excellence of the 
education they were receiving, and on the importance of 
being well instructed in their religious duties, his Emi- 
nence, in conclusion, said — 

He recommended them to make the best nse of 
their time, and the education they were now re- 
ceiving under the care of the Christian Brothers 



CATHOLIC YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY. 221 

would prove tlieir greatest treasure, and be one 
of their best safeguards against the dangers and 
difficulties with which they would have to contend 
in after life. 

His Eminence was then conducted to the other rooms, 
in each of which he imparted his blessing to the numerous 
little ones who were anxiously awaiting his arrival. On 
several occasions his Eminence expressed his admiration 
of the sprightly intelligence that beamed in the counte- 
nances of the children, and of their interesting appear- 
ance in general. He also remarked that both house and 
schools were complete in their way, and admirably adapt- 
ed to their purpose. On arriving at the outer gate his 
Eminence could with difficulty make his way through 
the dense crowds that pressed forward to obtain his bene- 
diction. Having satisfied their pious demands he entered 
the carriage, accompanied by his Grace and the Rev. Mr. 
Clifford, and drove off to the residence of the. Archbishop, 
Eccles Street. Before leaving the school his Eminence 
asked, and of course obtained, a holiday for the scholars. 

CATHOLIC YOUNG MEN'S SOCIETY. 

His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster 
delivered a lecture on Friday evening, at the Music Hall, 
on behalf of the above-named excellent society, the subject 
of his discourse being the principle that " Scientific prog- 
ress should assist moral improvement." Notwithstanding 
the high rates of admission, viz., 10s. to the platform, 5s. 
to the boxes, and 2s. 6d. to the body of the hall, every 
part of the building was crowded to excess. The attend- 
ance of Catholic clergymen was very numerous. The 
audience also included a considerable number of ladies. 
Amongst those present were the following : — 
The Bishop of Kerry, the Bishop of Ardagh, the Bishop 
ofSaldes, the Bishop of Wheeling (United States), the 
President of Maynooth College, the President of the Col- 
lege of Salamanca, the Yery Eev. Dean Meyler, P.P. ; 
19* 



222 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

the Yerj Rev. Dr. Spratt, the Yery Rev. Canon M'Cabe, 
P.P. ; Very Rev. Canon Roche, P.P. ; Rev. Canon Pope, 
Rev. Dr. Anderson, Rev. James Leahy, Rev. Mr. Mooney, 
Diindrnm ; Rev. M. Collier, Rathmines ; Rev. Patrick 
Leahy, Rev. Dr. Curtis, S.J. ; Rev. Mr. Bennett ; the 
Lord Mayor ; George Bowyer, M.P. ; J. J. McCarthy, Dr. 
M'Swiney, P. J. Murray, Esq. ; D. F. McCarthy, Professor 
Ornsby, C.U. ; Dr. Kirwan, Rev. Mr. Nolan, Donnybrook ; 
Rev. Dr. O'Brien, All Hallows ; Yery Rev. Dean Kieran, 
P.P. ; Rev. Mr. Brock, Rathmines, &c., <fec. 

A few minutes after eight o'clock the Cardinal made 
his appearance on the platform, and was received witli 
the most enthusiastic cheering, accompanied by waving 
of hats and handkerchiefs. This demonstration lasted 
several minutes. When silence was obtained, his Emi- 
nence spoke as follows : — 



THE LECTURE. 

My friends of the Catholic Young Men's Society, 
when I consented to lecture here this evening, it 
was upon the express condition that whatever I 
said should be spoken, not for you, but to you. 
While I was willing to give you my services in any 
way that might appear conducive to the well-being 
and prosperity of your Society, I was more anxious 
by far to give whatever encouragement I could 
personally to each of you, by showing you, as far 
as was in my power, my sincere interest in the 
object which unites you together — that of apply- 
ing yourselves to science of every form, under the 
safeguards and direction of religion. I do not, 
therefore, intend to address you on my subject, as 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 223 

if I considered you exposed to danger — tainted, 
even slightly, with incredulity — led, even in the 
least degree, by the pursuit of science to the small- 
est deviation from the right path of faith and virtue. 
I know well that the very regulations of your Soci- 
ety exact from you such pledges (and you will- 
ingly give them) as form at once the surest safe- 
guards, and the most efficient exponents, of your 
sincere and sound belief Neither do I intend to 
deliver to you what is called a scientific lecture. I 
am not going to take any part of science, and pre- 
tend to place it before you either more clearly or 
more perfectly than many of you, probably, already 
know it ; while, certainly, many who surround me 
could do all this infinitely better than I could pre- 
tend to do it. I will content myself with making 
use of well-known scientific facts, and of modern 
discoveries by way of illustration, and better ex- 
planation of the simple theme which I have chosen, 
that ^^ Moral improvement should always keep pace 
with scientific attainments or scientific progress." 

I will at once observe, that science is by no means 
essential to man's welfare. It is a well-known fact, 
that from the days of Newton to our own times 
there have been more scientific discoveries, there 
has been procured for mankind in general a more 
accurate and extensive acquaintance with the sys- 
tem of nature, than centuries had before produced ; 
nay, I may say, than had been obtained from the 
very commencement of civilization. Indeed, if we 



224: CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

except his great discoveries, especially those that 
relate to astronomy and light, we may even see 
that in the course of little more than om' lifetime 
there have been greater discoveries made, and the 
field of science has been more enlarged, than it had 
been, certainly since the revival of letters, perhaps, 
even during many and many ages before , yet, the 
world had gone on, and, in many respects, had gone 
on happily before these ]3eriods. Every virtue has 
been always practised in no ordinary degree ; heroic 
actions have been performed in every age, which 
have ennobled mankind ; prodigies of genius, in 
art especially, have been brought forth, such as we 
cannot pretend to rival, and which, probably, will 
never again be equalled ; and there has been happi- 
ness diffused abundantly through the family, through 
society, although during all these times, as I have 
said, the great scientific truths which now^ seem so 
clear and simple to us, and wdiich appear almost 
necessary for our w^elfare, were totally unknown. 

But at no period has there been real happniess, 
in no time have there been those o-reater and hio^her 
virtues to w^hich I have alluded, and never have 
there been those qualities that give stability to so- 
ciety, and happiness to its members, without a moral 
code, wdthout moral laws, without the supremacy of 
that code and the practice of what those laws 
command. And, therefore, it would be clearly an 
inversion of the order which Providence has estab- 
lished were we to regard science and its progress 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 225 

as the essential basis of man's happiness and of 
society's, and the moral duties as merely secondary 
and subsidiary : instead of asserting that great and 
salutary principle which we must always keep invi- 
olate, that the true and real basis of all human 
happiness is the observance of the moral law; 
while science, literature, and art, every thing, in- 
deed, that ennobles, every thing that engentles, 
every thing that makes more graceful, or touches 
with higher perfection human nature in the indi- 
vidual or in any form of society, may be made, and 
ought to be made subservient to its progress, and 
thereby to its perfection. 

In the individual this is clear and obvious. How 
many thousands, how many millions, even in the 
most civilized communities, must live and die with 
comparatively little knowledge of the most ordinary 
principles of science ? In fact, how few there are, 
even of those who make some study of those prin- 
ciples, that have any thing like an accurate idea, 
let us say, of their own organization, of the laws 
that regulate the economy of the human frame, of 
the many wonderful and intricate principles from 
every science, from chemistry and mechanics, for 
example, which are brought into action within the 
single compass of each individual ? And yet, who 
would condemn these men to unhappiness, and say 
that they cannot discharge every duty as good 
members of a family, and good citizens, and good 
human beings, virtuous and respectable in every 



226 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

way, because they are not acquainted with those 
intricate and complex laws ? Woe to them, indeed, 
if they are not possessed of moral principle ; but 
we know that, thus secured, the happiness of the 
individual is certain, even though his mind may not 
be refined, or may not have received the additional 
power, vigor, and, at the same time, grace, which 
an acquaintance with literature or science is able 
to give. 

For our present purpose we may define science 
as " an acquaintance with the facts and the laws of 
nature." These laws have existed from the begin- 
ning, and are unchangeable. It is only our knowl- 
edge concerning them that is progressive. There 
are men conversant with science who passively 
receive the discoveries which others make. They 
are acquainted with the laws, for instance, of chem- 
istry, of electricity, or of astronomy, although they 
may never themselves have made an experiment or 
conducted an observation. We sa}^ that these men 
possess science. There are others whose duty it is 
to be ever actively engaged in the prosecution of 
science, who are always endeavoring to discover 
something new in nature ; and these persons are 
scientific men in a much higher degree. To you 
who are members of this Society, of course, it is 
the first degree that belongs ; and you, if you be- 
come acquainted, not with all the details, but with 
the principles of the natural laws, of the laws that 
regulate the world, may be justly considered as 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 227 

enrolled among those wlio have an acquaintance 
with science. You have a knowledge of the laws 
of nature. You need not aspire to the capacity or 
duties of those who have to teach, and therefore 
have to keep in constant pursuit of every new fact 
that is elicited, or devote themselves to seeking, 
either by reflection, or by observation, or by experi- 
ment, the discovery of new laws. And, therefore, 
it is not of the progress of such men as these that 
I speak, when, in the subject of this lecture, I use 
the words, " the progress of science." It is of you 
who, by accumulating from day to day new knowl- 
edge, by making yourselves acquainted, if you have 
a taste for these pursuits, with the very latest infor- 
mation which those actively engaged in the pursuit 
of science have procured for you, that I speak. 
You make progress, each of you individually, every 
time you thus add to your knowledge. 

Now, what I mean to inculcate particularly in 
this lecture is, that in proportion as each of you 
makes an advance in his acquaintance with natural 
science, it should never be for a moment to the det- 
riment or diminution, in the slightest degree, of his 
moral principles or of his moral feeling, but that in 
proportion as he becomes more learned in the laws 
of physics, so much more should these lead him to 
feel and even to understand the moral laws of their 
Great Author. Instead, then, of diminishing, knowl- 
edge should increase your reverence towards Him ; 
it should intensify your humility and deep sense of 



228 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

how little man is as compared with Him ; and so 
you shoidd ever feel a growing confidence in His 
support, His providence, and His care. In propor- 
tion as vou see his command over those laws, the 
more you ought to perceive that they are wisdom 
and justice. 

There are two ways in which the mind, by fol- 
lowing a wrong step in reasoning, or by yielding to 
the suggestions of others, may be turned aside 
from that close and firm union that should be es- 
tablished on our path between the knowledge of 
nature and her laws, and a high moral sense. 

The first way to which I allude is one too com- 
monly pursued. It is this : to suppose or to take 
for granted, that in proportion as it is in our power 
to trace things to their causes, to connect them one 
with the other, to systematize them, to tabulate 
them in geometrical and average conditions and 
proportions, so much the more we are removed 
from the necessity of admitting a higher and more 
final Cause. One has often read or heard such rea- 
soning as this — ^^ We can account for this phenom- 
enon, we know the laws by which it is regulated, 
and we need not have recourse to the interference 
of a higher Power, because it is in connection with 
the whole system of the universe, and could not be 
altered without in some way deranging other por- 
tions." Consequently, by every new discovery 
which brings before us the more immediate or the 
more remote cause of any thing, it is supposed that 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 229 

we are departing a step more from the necessity of 
admitting the great and final cause. Then, conse- 
quently, the mind begins to be involved more and 
more in its own speculations and thoughts, comes to 
look at its own conclusions as final, and almost to 
think that there is a sort of greatness in not taking 
the old short road of at once inviting God to take 
part in the phenomena of nature, or of going 
through a very few steps to find Him as the ulti- 
mate cause : but rather it seeks to spin a net-work 
of causes, which shall be so interwoven one with 
the other, that we can easily escape when hard 
pressed, by following some divergence of science, 
and so being satisfied with those more immedi- 
ate causes which conceal from us the remote and 
final one. 

It would really appear that common reasoning 
should take us exactly in the opposite direction. 
If one discovered on the ground a ring or piece of 
metal, which had been twisted into a circular form, 
he might exclaim, ^^ What can this be ?" He looks 
at it, examines it, and perhaps concludes, and says, 
" It may have been formed by some accident, and 
have fallen there." But if he take it up, and finds 
that to it is attached another made in a similar man- 
ner, and that both are connected together, would 
our natural reason say that this was a stronger evi- 
dence of chance ; or, on the contrary, would it not 
suggest that this proved it the more to be the work 
of the hand of an artificer ? And if, bringing it 
20 



230 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

still nearer, he found attached another link, and 
another, and another, and others going from them 
in different directions, and saw in all the same ex- 
actness of workmanship, the same symmetry of 
proportion, the same perfect finish, would every 
step thus made in observation suggest the idea that 
more and more we should conclude all this only to 
arise from a fortuitous combination of different 
chance productions, and not rather that there was 
an invisible hand here at work which alone could 
have produced this beautiful complication ? 

A second manner in which the mind is easily led 
away by the study of physical science from the 
moral considerations which should always accom- 
pany it, is very common in ordinary books on 
science, in popular treatises or manuals. They 
often speak of man and nature as two antagonists, 
as if man were always striving to conquer nature. 
We boast of our triumphs over nature, and we 
seem to consider her avariciously withholding from 
us the possession of her secrets, as if she were the 
jealous guardian of the Hesperides, and we Hercu- 
les ; she the keeper of the golden fleece, and we the 
Argonauts ; as if the man of science were a thief 
who eludes her watchfulness, or overcomes her 
power, steals her keys from her, and unlocks, 
in spite of her, her hidden treasures. Hence, 
every discovery is treated as almost the subject of 
a boast, and put forward as a victory, as something 
new extorted from nature. Now, it is exactly the 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 231 

contrary. In all physical science we can only be 
the servants and disciples of nature. She must be 
the absolute mistress, and she will not yield one 
tittle of her power to us. We must be the schol- 
ars, she must be our teacher ; we cannot annul one 
of her laws, or force her to give up one single 
point which has, from the beginning, been estab- 
lished. It is not, therefore, by conflicting with her, 
but by learning from her with docility, and sim- 
plicity, and admiration, that we shall fairly over- 
come her. And this may be done in two different 
ways. One is, if I may use the expression, by 
alluring her to our assistance, making her our 
friend, and for that purpose using her own laws 
which we have already discovered. For by sub- 
mission alone to those laws, which she herself has 
taught us, can we overcome her. 

For example, you have in Ireland one of the 
most magnificent optical instruments that the world 
has ever seen ; indeed, without exception, the 
grandest in every respect. Of course, you under- 
stand that I allude to Lord Ross's telescope ; or it 
may, perhaps, with greater propriety be called the 
microscope of the heavens. For it brings into 
small detail that which is but vague under the 
action of any other astronomical instrument, and 
enables us to read that clearly w^hich before was 
but a bright blot upon their surface. Now, in order 
to make this valuable instrument what it is, there 
has, of course, been an immense reflector necessarily 



232 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

prepared for it with great skill, and even genius, 
by months of toil. Yet, by an inflexible law of 
nature, if the surface is exposed to damp, it be- 
comes clouded in a very short time, and is rendered 
comparatively useless. You cannot, by any power 
of man, prevent that law from acting. What can 
you do ? Bring nature into obedience to another of 
her own laws -, win her, as it were, through one of 
her own necessary maxims, to suspend this dispar- 
aging influence. What would you do, for example, 
supposing that you had choice flowers in your 
garden, and that for some reason or other you did 
not wish the bees of your hive to be moving among 
them, in order to drive them away ? It would be 
in vain that you spent the whole day in chasing 
them. Pat near their hive something wdiich they 
like better, something from which they can more 
readily stock their storehouse ; place, for example, 
sugar near them, and they may be allured by it 
from your parterres. In the same way, moisture 
loves something better than the hard surface of 
the reflector ; it loves lime more ; place it near the 
metallic disk, and it will absorb the moisture of the 
adjacent atmosphere. Thus nature will obey her 
own law of election, and her hurtful action is by 
this obedience prevented. If we cannot bring 
nature to act according to one of her laws rather 
than another, we have no remedy but to submit. 
It is useless to struggle. We may strive unceas- 
ingly to prevent the effects of that law, but we can 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 233 

make no compact with nature by which she will 
give up to us even the smallest of her rights. She 
has never surrendered one to all the science of the 
world put together. 

Let me now, in order to put this view more 
strikingly before you, imagine a conversation, such 
as has often, I dare say, taken place, especially at 
the commencement of steam locomotion, in almost 
every part of the world. We will suppose a per- 
son, by way of introducing the conversation, say 
of the steam engine, ^^ What a wonderful invention ! 
how marvellous ! to what a pitch has science been 
brought ! how completely has she mastered nature 
and her laws ! We have destroyed space, we have 
cheated time, we have invented a piece of mechan- 
ism which we have endowed with almost vital 
power, to which we have given all but intelligence ; 
and how proudly it goes on its way ! You hear it 
snorting and panting in its first efforts to dash for- 
ward, until it has gained a course as smooth, as 
regular, and as certain almost as the very orbits of 
the planets. We ride thus secure in the pride of 
that power • nature resists us in vain. We cut 
through her mountain ridges, though they be made 
of the hardest granite ; we pass over her yawning 
valleys by magnificent viaducts. We drain away 
whole regions of bog or marsh, if they come in our 
w^ay, with a superabundant moisture ; or we fill up 
almost unfathomable chasms. Thus we go on, 
overriding every thing, and anticipating no obstacle 
20* 



234 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

that "will not be mastered, if it oppose us, by the 
skill and power of man." " Hold ! " says one who 
has been listening to this boastful speech ; " hold ! 
look at yon cloud ; it is heavy with thunder. See 
those flashes, which already break through it — 
those bright lances, each tipped with fire, destruc- 
tive beyond all the power of man ; see their direc- 
tion towards us. Suppose that by a law of nature, 
which you have not repealed, one of those strike, 
and it makes a wreck of that proud monster. In 
an instant his brazen skin would be stripped off 
and cast aside ; his iron frame and burning viscera 
would be strewn around with the violence of a 
volcano, and we should leave it lying upon the 
road, a ruin, a mutilated carcass, from one single 
touch of the power of nature, defied by man." 
'' Nay," says a third, " I will not consent to a trial 
like that. I do not think it is necessary to invoke 
the power of nature in its most gigantic, and at the 
same time its most instantaneous action, to prove 
what it can do. It is not thus, in a vengeful form, 
that I will put into contrast that great production 
of man's ingenuity and the power of nature. No ; 
I will take the most harmless, the most gentle, the 
most tender thing in her, and I will put that 
against the other. What is there softer, more 
beautiful, and more innocent than the dew-drop, 
which does not even discolor the leaf upon which 
it lies at morning ? what more graceful, when, mul- 
tiplied, it makes its chalice of the rose, adds sweet- 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 235 

ness to its fragrance, and jewels to its enamel ? 
Could any thing be less likely to hurt than this ? 
You shake with your hand the flower cup in which 
it sparkles, and at once it vanishes. Expose the 
steam engine but to the action of this little and 
insignificant agent ; let it fall upon the strong 
monster for a short time, and continue to cover it. 
It does not come as an enemy ; it comes in a gentle 
and wooing form. It loves that iron ; it is ready 
to deprive itself of a portion of its own substance, 
of that which is one of the most brilliant things in 
nature, the little oxygen which it contains, and to 
bestow it on the iron. And the metal, although 
you made a compact with it that it should be 
bright and polished, and be your iron slave forever, 
cares more for the refreshment from those drops of 
dew than it does for you, and it absorbs them 
willingly. And so, by degrees, it allows its whole 
surface to be usurped and occupied by them, and 
the result of this conspiracy against you soon 
begins to appear. Every polished rod, so beautiful 
and fair, is blotched and gangrened, every joint is 
anchylosed and solidified, every limb becomes de- 
crepit, and you have soon a worthless piece of 
mechanism, lumber that must be thrown aside. A 
few drops of heaven have conquered the proudest 
work of man's ingenuity and skill." 

We come to this simple conclusion, that the more 
we study the laws of nature, the more we see how 
powerful it is, how superior to man, how it is the 



236 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

exponent and exhibitor of magnificent wisdom, of 
might with which we cannot cope. We must not 
pretend to too much ; but; in spite of boasts that 
nature has been overcome by man, let us ever 
keep this in mind, that she will always in the end, 
if it should come to a conflict, vanquish, and that 
her laws and power, illimitable and irresistible, 
represent to us a higher Power than that of man, 
that being likewise the same Power that gives us 
our own moral strength, and lays down our moral 
laws. We shall, indeed, depart sadly from the first 
and simplest conclusions of science, if we permit 
ourselves to be led to any thing but the deepest 
admiration and most earnest love of nature, which 
is so wonderful and beautifal, simply because it 
displays to us the work of God. We shall thus 
find that man cannot only rise above nature, but 
make her subserve his ends, by employing those 
laws which have been imposed on her by Him. 

I must, at the same time, call your attention to 
this, that whatever is beautiful and perfect in the 
works of man comes more or less from the imita- 
tion of nature ; and, in saying this, I am not speak- 
ing of art, of which it would be easy to assert that 
the nearer it approaches to nature, the more it 
excels. But I speak of such w^orks of man as are 
the productions of his skill, of his knowledge of the 
laws, mathematical and physical, which rule the 
world. Let us take a very simple example. There 
waS; as you have heard or read a thousand times, 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 237 

a place where a lighthouse Avas immensely wanted ; 
shipwrecks were constantly occurring there^ and 
yet it seemed to baffle the skill of the ablest engi- 
neers to erect a lighthouse on a desolate rock, in 
the bosom of the ocean. Unfortunately, every 
attempt had failed. A lighthouse, over which the 
waves dashed, had been cleared away, and those 
who inhabited it lost, and it was thought hopeless 
that there ever would be one on the Eddystone 
Rock, that would withstand the waves and winds 
leagued against it. When the work was at length 
put into the hands of a really great engineer, what 
was the principle upon which, as he tells us, he 
founded his plan ? Where did he find the best 
model for resisting such combined hostility of the 
elements ? He coLild see none in the most beau- 
tiful, or the most stable, or the most perfect of 
man's works. He accordingly looked into nature, 
and there found the oak, that oPtk which will stand 
against the storms of a thousand years, which 
shakes and tosses to and fro its noble head in 
storm after storm, and yet never gives way in its 
solid foundations. He buitt the lighthouse upon 
the model of the oak ; and we all know that it has 
never flinched, never for a moment bent to any 
efforts of the storm, and that because the engineer 
took the work of God as the surest model for suc- 
cess in the work of man. 

So much for mere inanimate objects. Let us 
proceed a step farther, and see if the same princi- 



238 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

pie can be carried out in connection with the next 
order of beings, having a higher, the animal, organ- 
ization. In the earliest times after men had been 
settled in communities, and occupied the great 
continents, there came a natural desire for making 
the sea the means of conveyance from one place to 
another. The island on the horizon may, perhaps, 
have tempted the inhabitants of the mainland to 
go and see whether they might find some new 
productions, or, at all events, satisfy the curiosity 
natural to man to explore hidden lands. Or, per- 
haps, after some time it might have become sur- 
mised that in one of these lands or islands another 
community, another society had been established, 
which by its industry had far surpassed the prog- 
ress of this inquiring body ; or, reversing this prop- 
osition, it might be that a community richer and 
more prosperous Avished still further to exercise its 
power, and bring the other into subjection. The 
ancients have spoken of the man who first com- 
mitted a frail craft to the ocean as having his 
bosom guarded with triple brass ; and see how 
hazardous indeed, in the first instance, was the 
experiment of what has become so very familiar to 
us, when its first implement was a log, the trunk, 
probably, of a large tree hollow^ed out, and later, 
perhaps, several of these joined together. Such, 
no doubt, was the simple form which the boat or 
canoe took, and, thus shaped, it was committed to 
the tide and waves. Some propelling power is 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 239 

required, and the paddle is the first suggested to 
the uncivilized mind. It serves for oar and helm, 
till, multiplied at each side, it impels the war canoe 
of the savage islanders, light and flashing over the 
billows' crests. Still it is warily steered, except in 
the fairest weather, and kept as much as possible 
under the shelter of the coast. Such were the 
rude beginnings of the great science of navigation ; 
such the rudiments of that power by which Colum- 
bus discovered a fourth quarter of the world, and 
Europe holds in subjection the newly-added fifth. 

If we look at that first simple vessel, it seems 
now to exhibit to us an imitation of the rudest 
mechanism of nature. We can almost liken it to 
some of the Crustacea that swim near the shore, with 
their legs on each side moving them forward, slowly? 
indeed, along the surface of the water, or to a huge 
centipede pushing on slowly its countless arms, until, 
by degrees, it reaches a distant point. But what a 
slow and dangerous and most incommodious navi- 
gation was this, representing one of the lowest 
orders of organized beings in its movement along 
the water ! Man cannot be satisfied with this, and 
he begins to construct vessels of another class — 
larger, no doubt, and more beautiful. You will see 
in old paintings the galley of the middle ages, or 
even in the earlier monuments, that of Greece or 
Eome. It appears to us a dumpy and clumsy crafty 
which, however, has its curved prow, its raised and 
gilded poop, and its swelling canvas in the middle, 



240 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

which, though the iinsightly and encumbering ap- 
pendage of oars still remains, gives it the ajDpear- 
ance of stateliness along with beauty. But its 
power of motion is chiefly from without — the 
Vv^ind. This alone impels it forward, and it has no 
independent power, except by a return to the old, 
slow system of oars. I do not know to what you 
can liken this better than to the little nautilus, the 
model ship of nature, or to the swan, with its 
graceful neck and snow-white sails, when it shakes 
them forth, and allows itself to be borne along the 
surface of the water. 

Man had made an advance ; he had improved the 
power of moving the ship on water, but he had not 
reached the perfection of his idea, and it is only in 
our own time we have seen it attained. What a 
different thing the ship is now ! It derives its im- 
petus, not from without, but from within ; it is 
almost like an organized or living being ; it seems 
to act by its own impulses ; it moves forward, as it 
were, by its own desire. It waits not for power 
coming from one side or the other to shape its 
course, and take a wandering and circuitous prog- 
ress towards the aim of its voyage ; but having 
the power of motion within itself, it darts forward, 
rather than floats on ocean's surface. And why so 
well ? Because science, after studying mathemati- 
cally and experimentally, and submitting to formu- 
las all her data, to discover what is the best form 
for moving with velocity through the water, has 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 241 

foimd that all her theories and observations have 
brought her back to what she should have begun 
with^ that the beautiful creation of divine wisdom, 
when it peopled the waters — the fish was her nat- 
ural model. Hence the elegant and fleet vessel of 
the present day, narrow, slim, with sharp prow, 
which is made to cut the w^ater, not so much to rise 
with the wave as to pass through it, in the same 
manner as the fish, whose very shape and organiza- 
tion make it the inhabitant of the deep. And yet, 
after all, when man has produced this great and 
noble w^ork, and at immense cost prepared his gal- 
lant ships to stem the wave, and brave the storm, 
and return laden with rich merchandise, what has 
he made ? Why, there is not in the deep ocean's 
bed, there is not in the tidal river, there is not in 
the purling brook, one of its thousand inmates that 
does not far excel it in aptness of form, in ease of 
movement, in trueness of life. Supple, gracefully 
curving, darting up and down from side to side, 
with playful will, in its crystal world, it shows how 
infinitely superior are the creations of God to those 
of man, and how the one may best reach perfection 
in his grandest undertakings by imitating imper- 
fectly the least of the other's. For thus, century 
by century, perfection in navigation has been 
attained by lowering its acknowledged type, or 
rather by raising it to fix its model in the smallest 
work of God. 

Now let us rise higher still to the most perfect 
21 



242 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

organization which God has bestowed on earth — 
that which forms the framework, animated by the 
soul of man. We cannot help, it is natural to us, 
and has been so in every age, to liken countries to 
what is the most perfect work of nature. We 
speak of a continent having its spine, its backbone. 
Look at a ridge of firm mountains; it traverses 
the country from end to end, and seems to be the 
very groundwork, the key of its formation. From 
its flanks descend beautiful ridges, which corre- 
spond to the muscular tissues of the body. The 
hills and valleys in these, covered with rich vege- 
tation, are flowing and panting with life ; the 
streams, diverging into many currents, giving vital- 
ity, strength, and vigor, we cannot but liken to 
those veins and arteries which carry within them 
the nourishment of animal life. Again, when we 
speak of countries, especially if we do so in general 
terms, we call their peculiar forms " their features," 
as though we contemplated in them the resemblance 
of what is characteristic in man. The features of 
one country, we say, are bolder than those of 
another, or they are tamer ; here they appear to us 
to denote poverty ; there, on the contrary, they are 
exhilarating, and raise our spirits when we contem- 
plate them. We thus make a natural comparison 
between man and the earth which he inhabits. 

But there was one thino; wanting: to comnlete 
this picture. What is it that gives to man the 
whole of his power of feeling and acting ? What 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 243 

is it that conveys communication from one extrem- 
ity of his frame to another ; that in an instant darts 
the pain of the wound to the seat of thought? 
What is it that sends instantly forth from it, not 
only will and intelligence, not only the mind but 
the power to act, that at once puts the whole frame, 
every muscle of it, into an attitude of defence ? 
What is it that draws it down into the prostration 
of suppliant prayer ; that, when elate with joy, ex- 
pands its eyes, opens its lips, gives its utterance to 
speech, sharpens every sense, and imparts to the 
whole system the consciousness of life ? What is 
it ? That exquisite provision which, by a series of 
filaments, most sensitive and delicate, carries, from 
one centre, the command to every part, and receives 
back the message of sensation, which causes to be 
combined in that centre the results of these various 
actions; holding there the council which decides 
what is to be done, and in an instant the command 
is transmitted to every smallest and most distant 
pore, — that beautiful nervous system which is, 
without exception, the most wonderful and myste- 
rious part of the animal organism, only in man 
superior, because associated in him alone with in- 
telligence. Ask the physiologist what is the prin- 
ciple which acts through this delicate organization, 
and he is tempted, like Sir Benjamin Brodie, to say 
that we have here an apparatus generating elec- 
tricity, and by means of these delicate threads 
transmitting it, and by it, as a sensitive medium^ 



244 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

feeling and motion, making the whole of man a 
unity of sensation and action • while it, of course, 
is only an instrument in the hands of an intelli- 
gent and spiritual power which dominates over 
every part of man's vital existence. And if this 
be so, then if any thing were wanting to make 
the frame of nature resemble, as far as possible, 
that of man, it has been now given to it by man, 
in that wonderful means of communication which 
passes from town to town, and from country to 
country, over entire continents, and which will 
one day, I trust, in spite of any passing accidents, 
unite distant hemispheres together. 

We thus find that this study of the works of 
nature, when compared with those of man, leads us 
to the acknowledgment of the superior beauty of 
the former; shows us, that however man may copy 
and mimic nature, he produces but a most imperfect 
imitation of a most complete and perfect model ; 
and, therefore, every thing in nature, even the com- 
monest thing, is fairer than any thing which man 
can produce. The result of this knowledge is, to 
show us that God is infinitely superior to man — 
that His laws are more exact, more true, and, at the 
same time, more beautiful, more energetic, and more 
beneficent than any thing that man can produce by 
the work of his hands. 

After all, what are the works of man's hands ? 
What has he done ? You, perhaps, are astonished at 
the question. Has he not done mighty things ? 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 245 

has he not done most lasting and solid things ? has 
he not done things deserving of the highest praise ? 
Certainly he has ; but with what has he done them, 
and of what has he made them ? After man has 
been toiling for thousands of years^, has he made, 
has he produced one single thing ? Has he given 
being to a single object, even if it be no larger than 
a grain of sand, which had no existence before ? If 
there is any domain of nature in which man may 
be considered powerful it is in chemistry. There 
he seems to do wonders ; because, for example, he 
brings together two invisible gases, which, as far as 
your senses are concerned, have no existence, and 
immediately a liquid is produced by their union 
which did not exist before ; he submits this liquid to 
some action, perhaps an artificial change of temper- 
ature, and lo ! a solid is the result. Is not that mak- 
ing something ? Or he places before you two sub- 
stances of totally different natures ; one, for example, 
which you cannot even touch without its blistering 
your skin ; he pours it on the other, and in an in- 
stant a third substance is produced, which you can 
not only take into your hand, but which you may use 
as a medicine. Here seems to be creation, transmu- 
tation of all kinds ; and yet you know it is an estab- 
lished principle that in all this he has produced 
nothing. He w^ould be scouted as an impostor from 
every lecture-room in the world should he pretend 
to say that out of nothing he could produce an ex- 
isting substance; and, therefore, he is obliged to 
21* 



246 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

own this limitation of his powers, that creation, at 
least, belongs not to him ; that he is an artificer and 
workman only ; and that whatever he makes, no 
matter how magnificent it may be, is all made up 
of things which some one else has made for him. 

Reasoning upon these things, we are irresistibly 
led to the acknowledgment of that Supreme Being 
in whom the power of creation alone is lodged. By 
means of chemical science we can produce new com- 
binations of matter; we can resolve substances, 
however complicated, into their constituent ele- 
ments; but as we cannot obliterate and destroy 
them, so w^e cannot create or produce them except 
from something that has preexisted. The limit to 
man's power is this, that when we have given to 
inorganic matters every form and activity of which 
they are capable, when we have brought them 
together under every possible circumstance and 
condition, we still, though having all the necessary 
elements in our hands, cannot produce that which 
forms an organic substance. That texture, that 
shape, that combination of things which constitute 
organic structure, no genius of man can make. His 
power is limited solely to the combination of sub- 
stances. He has never, by putting together what 
he knows are the elements of a tree or plant, 
and by applying the stimulus of electricity or of 
any other power, made them weave themselves 
into the texture of a single leaf He has never 
made them so to join that any thing like a blade of 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 247 

grass has sprung from them. Still less has he suc- 
ceeded in making them assume the form of a tree, 
clothing its stem with bark, filling it with innumer- 
able vessels bearing up and down the sap in its 
proper season, and producing in due time its leaves 
and flowers. Never has he been able to do this, 
and yet he has had apparently complete power over 
the elements that produce these things. In like 
manner he may generate something resembling the 
juices that exist in the human body, but he will 
never make an eye ; he will never create an ear ; 
he will never form matter into a hand or arm ; still 
less, produce an entire organization, I will not say 
of man, but of the smallest living thing. The day 
may come w^hen scientific men will be able to pro- 
duce some of the substances of which the human 
form is composed, fibrine, gelatine, &c., but never 
will they combine them into a living organization. 

What, then, are we to conclude ? It is certain 
that man i^ but a recent being on this earth — that 
it is only some thousands of years since he appeared 
upon it. How did he come here ? A few years 
ago persons having a superficial knowledge of some 
branches of science, used confidently to say that 
man was but a development of a lower class of 
beings ; that the earth had undergone successive 
revolutions, being first inhabited by inferior ani- 
mals, whichj by some secret law, or some unknown 
combination, advanced in the scale of organization, 
until at length, in the course of countless centuries, 



248 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

man came forth as a certain evolution and product 
of previous existences. Now, if that principle could 
be put to any test, it has been. Having a certainty 
that man has a date, that the first man that peopled 
this earth was the same as now, that, during 6,000 
years, there has not appeared in the world the 
slightest variety in substance, or any thing beyond 
the accidents of color, not the slenderest varietv in 
organization or mind, we have no other escape from 
the problem of how man came on earth but this, 
even had v/e no other conclusions to draw but what 
physical science brings us to, that we are the crea- 
tures of another's hand ; that He made us, and not 
we ourselves ; and that no boast of man, no pre- 
tence to see into the future, will ever make him 
venture to say, '^ My science will reach to this ; some 
day I Yfill make a man." 

If you examine the material of which any thing 
we wear is composed, how complicated it is ! Take, 
for example, a thread of wool, and see the wonder- 
ful mechanism that is brought to light in it under 
great magnifying power. Man, who, with his ma- 
chines, can weave millions of these threads, could 
not, by any number of years or labor, give existence 
to one of them. He would not know how to spin 
it into its beautiful spiral form, to lubricate it, to 
prepare it for the action of his skill. He is obliged 
to abandon all this — to what ? To a higher power 
that produces it for him. He has nothing to do 
but to sit down and wait until the grass has grown, 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 249 

until that grass has become the food of the flock, 
and until that flock has, by degrees, as winter comes 
on, produced its warm covering, and when it be- 
comes useless, to strip it from them, and then only 
he may begin his work. Over all these preparatory 
changes he has no control. The most fastidious 
gentleman must be content to wear the superfluous 
and cast-ofl" clothing of his own flock. And so, he 
has to wait until a miserable insect shall spin from its 
bowels that of which he robs it, taking from it, at 
the same time, its clothing, its nest, and its life — 
that silk in which queens and empresses are clothed, 
and of which man could not construct the smallest 
filament. These are all things produced by another 
power, over which he has no control. 

If man cannot generate the materials, perhaps 
he can produce the agents, with which he works ? 
Let us take two of them : the first one of which I 
have already spoken — electricity. What wonders 
he is doing with it now ! He is threading the very 
labyrinths of ocean, and speaking from shore to 
shore. He is producing by it, or he will produce, 
light the most brilliant. He is employing, at his 
beck, this most subtile creature, or substance, or 
power, or whatever it is, for we know not. But 
he has discovered — what ? Why, only a power 
and laws independent of him. He has found the 
way to energize it, or rather chance revealed it to 
him. The first discovery was merely accidental ; 
but having got the end of the thread, he has, by his 



250 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

ingenuity, pulled it towards liim, and at length 
made it useful to him ; and so electricity has become 
one of the most powerful and useful appliances of 
man's genius. He has discovered, further, a most 
important law, wdthout wdiich it could not be ap- 
plied to the purposes of electro-magnetism or tele- 
graphic communication. That is a law wdiich no 
calculation could have discovered. It is, that the 
current of electricity, moving in a right line, acts 
upon the magnets at right angles from its own 
course. Has man created that law any more than 
invented the marvellous powder to which it belongs ? 
Nav ; lias not this subtile ao-ent existed from the 
beocinnino' ? Wonderful that it should have been all 
round us, on the earth, in man and about him, show- 
ing its phenomena, tremendous or beautiful, from the 
creation of the world, and that man should never have 
conceived that there w^as any value in it ! How do 
"we account for this, except b}^ the dispositions of a 
Providence, which fixes the times wdien the world 
shall be made acquainted with physical laws which 
have existed for ao-es ? Does not the flict of the 
existence of these laws (for no one doubts their ex- 
istence from the beginning of the world) give us an 
idea of what must be the mind wdiich contained that 
knowledge so perfectly, for these laws were given 
by Him who created the power which they regu- 
late. Therefore, we find that man has done noth- 
ing but discover laws that existed, and applied them 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 251 

to his purposes, creating nothing, only modifying 
or adapting. 

So it is with the other great power now so useful 
to man. When that which moves us so rapidly 
from place to place, by sea and land, and which now 
seems to be the very life of our commercial rela- 
tions, is mentioned, one is apt to imagine it is some 
great agent of man's own, or one which he has con- 
verted into a most powerful auxiliary. And yet, is 
it either ? Has he created steam, or has he bound 
it by any single law which it had not before he 
knew it ? 

We may wonder what sort of man that was who, 
many ages ago, either before or after the Deluge, 
saw a herd of untamed horses tossing their manes 
in the pride of unbridled liberty, and coursing across 
the sandy deserts of Arabia ; who, singling out one 
in mind, and noting the beautiful symmetry of his 
shape, the breadth of his chest, the fiery breath of 
his nostrils, the lightning of his eye, and the fieet- 
ness of his pace, exclaimed : — ^^ I will tame you and 
make you my servant ; I will put a bit into your 
mouth ; you shall be, at the same time, my friend 
and my slave." No more did this man create 
the noble animal which he made subservient to his 
will, than did he create, who first, with noble 
genius and consummate skill, brought steam, that 
apparently indomitable power, under the yoke 
of man. 

Let us now look at another, perhaps more agree- 



252 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

able, or, at any rate, more pacific and more noble 
source of pleasure. 

If I allude to the contemplation of some of the 
recent phenomena which have been discovered in 
the heavens, do not think that I am going to 
deliver to you a dissertation or treatise. I wish 
simply to illustrate how man, by merely combining 
elements which existed, and by applying rules and 
laws which are totally independent of himself, has 
arrived by degrees at a development of knowledge 
such as brings him nearer to a contemplation of 
the infinity of God than his forefathers enjoyed. I 
have spoken of that stupendous telescope which 
now is able to resolve the hitherto hidden parts of 
the heavens into their minuter elements, and show 
us what before was concealed from our sight ; and 
I will only dwell on such phenomena as have thus 
been, if not discovered, brought more accurately 
within our knowledge. For the real discovery of 
them belongs to the great astronomer of modern 
times, Herschel. The first is, the immense increase 
in what at first seemed a rare and extraordinary 
phenomenon, of stars, called by astronomers 
'^ double stars." It was observed formerly by tel- 
escopes, that what appeared to the naked eye, or 
even to a telescope of small power, a very bright 
star, is, when examined through a more powerful 
lens or reflector, a "double star" — that is, two 
stars seeming one by being very near one another. 
You may say that this might be an accident ; the 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 253 

heavens are powdered with stars, and what more 
easy than that two stars should appear joined to- 
gether ? However, it has been accurately calcu- 
lated that the chances of two stars being so close, 
supposing them to be all scattered through the 
heavens, are 9,570 against one, next to an impossi- 
bility. And the chance of three stars being to- 
gether, is of 173,524 to one. Therefore, the 
conclusion was come to, that those stars were in 
some way connected. However, that was a trifling 
discovery compared with the one, w^hich made us 
acquainted with another celestial phenomenon, by 
a slight change of name, called " binary stars," that 
is, of stars having a periodical movement in relation 
of one to the other. This has been a most valuable 
discovery, because it has enabled us to calculate at 
least to some extent the distances of the heavenly 
bodies. Before the real distance of any star could 
be measured, a calculation had been made of what 
must be the shortest distance from us at which the 
nearest star could possibly be placed, and the result 
was, twenty billions of miles. The discovery of 
these binary stars, however, has led to the measure- 
ment of such varying distances, as, though most 
diminutive, allowed angles to be obtained for as- 
certaining their distance. And we may form some 
idea of what the telescope has done for us, when 
we reflect that it has brought within our sight fixed 
stars, remote from us not less than 17,000 billions 
22 



254 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of miles, a measurement which no strain of our 
imagination can grasp. 

But there is also a singular and beautiful phenom- 
enon brought before us by the discovery of these 
binary stars. One of these may be a sun moving 
round another sun and planetary system, carrying 
its train of subject planets with it. This gives rise 
to a series of charming and magnificent phenomena. 
For example, it has been distinctly observed that 
in those binary stars there is often a variety of 
colors ; so that one sun may be crimson and the 
other blue, in which case we should have a crimson 
sun moving round a blue one. What w^ouldbe the 
consequence of this ? Supposing a planet like the 
earth, wdth its own sun, to be going round the 
greater ellipse or flattened circle, with another sun 
standing in the centre of attraction at the focus of 
this ellipse, we have the two suns shining upon the 
same plane. We have, at one time of the year, the 
two suns rising at exactly the same moment and 
setting together ; at another time, the one sun sets 
exactly as the other rises. At one time of the year 
there would, in consequence, never be night ; one 
sun would appear above the horizon as the other was 
descending below it, and there w^ould be, at other 
times, every variety of alternation. At one period 
there rises, for example, in the morning, a magnifi- 
cent crimson sun, shedding a light of the richest 
hue over every object, which, of course, if such a 
planet be inhabited, would be adapted to the organs 



THE LECTURE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 255 

of its inhabitants. When it has risen to a certain 
height there will arise a no less beautiful blue sun. 
The crimson and blue light will mingle and form a 
white light, but as the crimson sun descends, the 
blue one will gain predominance, and give a sunset 
rich in a combination of colors, of which we cannot 
form an idea. 

Man, having deduced minutely the laws govern- 
ing the system to which the earth belongs, is able 
to prove that the laws which regulate those distant 
spheres are exactly the same, and yet, at the same 
time, their varieties may be immense. We know 
not what they may be ; what movements, what in- 
numerable combinations and varied charms may 
exist in any one of those systems. It is sufficient 
to know, as far as we can determine them, that they 
are governed by the same laws, however different, 
in many respects, from our own system. I will 
give you one beautiful thought, from a little work 
which, perhaps, has not fallen into many hands, in 
illustration of how we may reason from astronomi- 
cal discoveries. There are many of the stars visible 
with the telescope which must be 17,000 billions of 
miles distant. Light travels at the rate of 192,000 
miles per second, which is an immense velocity; 
and yet, light, coming from a star at the distance of 
which I have spoken, must take 2,600 years to 
reach us ; consequently, if we saw through a tele- 
scope this night a ray of light from one of those 
stars, we should see a ray that left the star 2,600 



256 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

years ago, and has been travelling till now. It 
may have happened that 2,000 years ago that star 
was extinguished, and yet it will be seen for 600 
years more ; because the rays that had left it before 
its destruction would go on travelling to us for all 
that time. This gives a faint idea of the immensity 
of creation ! 

But we are told that a thousand years are as one 
day with God. Now, God is every where. He is 
in every one of those stars as much as He is here ; 
and the eye of God, which is every where, sees on 
every side, and sees all naturally, not by a direction 
of its vision, but as the consequence of universal 
knowledge. But by way of illustration, let us ima- 
gine a being gifted by Him with unlimited power 
of vision, but subject to the ordinary laws of light 
for the transmission of its objects ; so that he would 
not behold, as a result of ubiquity, what was actu- 
ally taking place every where, but only what a ray 
of light brings with it from any point of the 
heavens, as occurring when it left it. Thus, if that 
being were placed at the star just alluded to, it 
would take 2,600 years for a ray from our sphere 
to reach it, equally as it does one from it to arrive 
at us. 

Such an eye, so placed, would now be seeing what 
was taking place on our earth 2,600 years ago, 
when the ray parted from earth, which is now 
arriving at it ; that is, what was happening about 
the time of the foundation of Kome. 



THE LECTUEE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 257 

And if the point of vision were shifted, and re- 
moved to more distant stars, its power would be 
contemplating events still more remote ; in one, 
the building of the Temple, in another, the sacrifice 
of Abraham, in a third, the deluge, nay, even the 
creation of man. And if we contract the interval 
of the visual power, and bring it to a nearer sphere, 
the birth of our Lord, His blessed Passion, and 
every important event since would be viewed, not 
as past, but as actually taking place. 

The application of this idea is very striking. In 
every one of those heavenly bodies, and in every 
intervening spot, is God, and His all-seeing eye. 
From each He scans, and minutely, as well as pier- 
cingly, sees all ; and in seeing can estimate the 
exact bearing of the laws which He has given to 
light. In every point he sees every thing as it is 
seen there -, and as past and present are but one to 
Him, He contemplates every event as actually be- 
fore Him ; and it requires but an easy stretch of 
our reasoning imagination to add the dim shadows 
of the future as embodied to His fore-knowleds-e, to 
the evanescent forms of the past, that so all may 
be unity in Him, all but a present eternity without 
division of time. 

This ingenious reasoning, put forth in a very 
small treatise, suggests, as drawn from science, a 
high moral thought. And I will venture to repeat 
that the many sublime discoveries of modern astron- 
omy carry us farther than any abstract arguments 
22* 



258 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

have ever done towards realization of any notion 
of God's infinity. If we have extended our knowl- 
edge of the heavens beyond twenty billions to one 
hundred and seventeen billions of miles, and have 
discovered at that distance only evidence of our 
being no nearer the confines of creation than we 
were before ; if in that inappreciable distance we 
see no marks of less perfect workmanship, of less 
exact laws, than near our own sun-encircling home, 
what do we conclude but that God is as much there 
as here, beyond what we had known before, lavish 
in goodness, inexhaustible in wisdom, unrestricted 
in power, having nothing to do with space but to 
enrich it, and fill it exuberantly with His own holy 
beauty ? And how our admiration and reverence 
should increase, as we thus gain upon Him in those 
long-concealed recesses of the workings of His 
greatness ! 

But when we catch a glimpse of the still more 
remote treasures, which, probably, no ingenuity of 
man will raise his powers to reach ; those appar- 
ently handfuls of diamond-dust which are flung 
here and there on the horizon of the most power- 
ful telescope, the nehulce^ which, as if to dally with 
our fancies, here throw out fringes of sparkling 
light, that may contain more stars than we can dis- 
tinctly see in all the heavens, there seem twisted 
into silver strands, or look as if whirled into a fire- 
work from the end of some golden sceptre, tipped 
with celestial flame ; when in these fantastic clus- 



THE LECTUEE IN THE MUSIC HALL. 259 

ters we recognize whole milky ways reduced to a 
point, made beautiful as if for us, our feelings take 
a complexion more akin to the admiration that 
wins affection; we love the Workman who can 
impress such charms on the farthest and faintest 
touches of His hand, can kindle with dazzling 
brightness the last footstep from which he plunges 
into the ocean of trackless space. If physical 
science can suggest an idea of what is meant by 
His dwelling " in light inaccessible/' it is by repre- 
senting Him as hidden in His majestic beauty, be- 
yond those brilliant fires which the unravelled 
nehulce just reveal to us. The farther we push our 
knowledge of creation in space, the deeper we 
impel our thought of the Creator into infinity. 

I now approach the conclusion of all that I have 
been saying. Perhaps, in addressing you, I have 
kept before me my observation of what is going on 
where the sphere of my own labors is situated, 
rather than what you experience. Here, I believe, 
as I have already remarked, you are far removed 
from those attempts most common amongst us, to 
seduce young men from the faith by shallow and 
superficial science. But this I can say, from per- 
sonal knowledge, that the truly learned are far 
from considering that modern discoveries have 
given any advantage to irreligion or infidelity. 
Not long ago I was conversing with one of the 
most eminent men of the day in geology, palaeon- 
tology, and comparative anatomy, and he expressed 



260 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

his conviction that modern researches had not con- 
firmed the arguments drawn years ago from these 
sciences against revelation^ nor behed the answers 
given to them. 

The old French physiologists used to say, in 
exculpation or in sneer, that the scalpel did not 
discover soul or spirit. A modern physician would 
not tell you so. Men like Sir Benjamin Brodie find 
in the most refined apparatuses of the human 
frame, and in the most subtile operations of its 
economy, only ministering instruments and results 
of an indefinable and invisible energy, in whose 
presence is concealed the key to the mystery of 
life. 

Be sure, then, that the man of real science recog- 
nizes more than the superficial observer the concord 
between physical and moral laws, between science 
and religion. Both come from one great Source ; 
and every step that we make in the investigation 
of the physical laws and of their principles ought 
to lead us only to a nearer and better acquaintance 
with those of the moral universe, and with the ma- 
jesty and grandeur of Him who has wished to grant 
us growing evidence of Himself and of His attri- 
butes, by allowing His works, perfect from the 
beginning, to be gradually unveiled and explained 
to our researches. 

Look, then, on all science as represented to you 
under the form of a tapering pyramid ; the base of 
which covers all creation, and contains all that God 



CLONGOWESWOOD COLLEGE. 261 

has made, known to ns, and unknown. Its next 
step will be much narrowed, and comprehend the 
comparatively small portion which man has merely 
investigated. After this, less extensive still, will 
be what he has attained by plausible conjecture 
and ingenious theories ; then the very little which 
he has l^een able to demonstrate to certainty ; till 
the summit and point of all this science is lost, and 
hidden in the dazzling light of higher wisdom, 
which is to know God, towards whom all our 
knowledge will thus aspire and tend, from whom 
all blessing will descend and spread over all our 
pursuits. 

CLONGOWESWOOD COLLEGE. 

On Thursday his Eminence, accompanied by the Yery 
Rev. Doctor Eussell, President of Maynooth, and the Rev. 
Messrs. Clifford and Burke, visited this college. Upon 
his arrival he was received by the Yery Rev. J. Lentaigne, 
the provincial, by the rector, and the professors, who, with 
many of the neighboring gentry and clergy, were assem- 
bled to welcome his Eminence, and to conduct him 
through the house. After luncheon the Cardinal ex- 
pressed in the kindest terms his approval of the arrange- 
ments of the college, and regretted that, as the vacation 
had not yet terminated, he could not have the additional 
gratification of seeing around him the numerous pupils 
of the establishment. Notwithstanding the wetness of 
the day, many of the neighboring peasantry were collected 
to receive his blessing. 

THE CARDINAL AND THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 

On Saturday, in pursuance of an appointment which his 
Eminence Cardinal Wiseman was graciously pleased to 



262 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

make, a deputation from the Mechanics' Institution, 
consisting of Alderman John Reynolds, Dr. Gray, James 
Haughton, Esq., and Mr. Leech, the Secretary, waited on 
his Eminence at the residence of the Archbishop of Dub- 
lin, Eccles Street. The deputation was most graciously 
received by his Eminence, who was accompanied by the 
Right Rev. Dr. Moriarty, Lord Bishop of Kerry ; Rev. E. 
L. Clifford, and other gentlemen. The gentlemen com- 
posing the deputation having been introduced. 

Dr. Gray said, the deputation in whose behalf he had 
taken the liberty of writing to his Eminence to Ballinasloe 
was then present, for the purpose of personally expressing 
to his Eminence the anxiety they felt that he who had 
done so much to advance' popular literary institutions in 
England should give the sanction of his countenance and 
support, and the benefit of his public advice, in the form 
of a lecture, to the members of the Dublin Mechanics' 
Institution. He wonld avail of that opportunity to ob- 
serve, that the Dublin Institution consisted principally of 
young men of the mechanic class who were anxious to 
advance themselves by attaining to a higher degree of 
scientific knowledge in the several branches connected 
with their trades. The institution was entirely self- 
supporting, and consisted indiscriminately of Catholics, 
Protestants, and Dissenters. The deputation then present 
represented the united wishes of all, that his Eminence 
would favor them by giving a lectnre on any subject 
upon any day that would best suit his own convenieuce. 
Alderman Reynolds, whose name and position were famil- 
iar to his Eminence, would probably state some further 
matters connected with the institution, which it would be 
right to place before his Eminence before he arrived at 
any conclusion, as also would Mr. Haughton, who might 
justly be considered the founder of the institution. 

His Eminence regretted that, when he received Dr. 
Gray's communication at Ballinasloe, he was not in a 
position to accede to the request which it contained, and 
compliance with which, under ordinary circumstances, 
would have afforded him great satisfaction. He assured 
the deputation that although it might not be perfectly 



THE CARDINAL AND THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 263 

correct, as Dr. Gray had stated, that he had done very 
much to advance such institutions, he felt deeply inter- 
ested in their success ; and in the support which he had 
given them he had at least shown his good will, if he had 
not as effectually succeeded as he could have desired. 
He should have been very happy, if his time had permitted 
him, to do the same for the Dublin institution, but unfor- 
tunately he was to leave town that day, and should not 
return until Thursday, which day would be entirely 
occupied by previous arrangements, and he had to leave 
for England on Friday. 

Alderman Reynolds felt that the deputation, under the 
circumstances, could not press his Eminence any further; 
but in support of what had been said by Dr. Gray in 
reference to the institution, he should add that it consisted 
of over twelve hundred members, the majority of whom 
were young mechanics, anxious to spend their leisure time 
in the library and reading-room rather than in the public 
house, and thus attain those advantages which were sure 
to accrue from a superior position and a superior intelli- 
gence. Many of the members also were students of the 
several colleges, and young men aiming at the different 
professions, who found literary and scientific advantages 
in the Mechanics' Institution which they could not obtain 
elsewhere. The members of the institution were a mixed 
assembly, as mixed as the deputation which was then 
before his Eminence, and he, speaking in behalf of its 
Catholic members, felt deeply anxious that they should 
have the countenance and the support of his Eminence ; 
and he might add, on the part of his dissenting brethren, 
that his Eminence was nowhere received with more 
cordiality and welcome than he would be by those in 
whose behalf he, in connection with the other members of 
the deputation, sought for the support and countenance 
of his Eminence. 

Dr. Gray observed that the deputation could hardly feel 
at liberty, after what liis Eminence had said, to urge the 
request any further ; but the kindly expression which his 
Eminence had been pleased to give utterance to in refer- 
ence to the institution was such as to induce him to 



264 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

express a hope that, when his Eminence should again visit 
Ireland, the deputation would be permitted to calculate 
on his meeting the members of the Dublin Mechanics' 
Institution at such time as would best suit his own con- 
venience. 

His Eminence spoke as follows : — • 

It may be some time before I again visit Ireland ; 
but my reception has been so kind and so cordial, 
that I look forward to such an event v^ith the most 
pleasurable anticipations. The facts laid before me 
to-day by the deputation, and the reliance which I 
must naturally place in the statements of its mem- 
bers, consisting as it does of gentlemen of position 
and intelligence, makes me feel that I should be 
quite " at home " at the Dublin Mechanics' Insti- 
tute, and should circumstanc-es at all allow of my 
re-visiting Ireland within a reasonable time, and 
under such circumstances as will leave me any 
leisure for such a purpose, I shall be happy to meet 
the deputation again, or receive a communication 
from it previous to my visit. I must, at the same 
time, observe, that whatever I do, must be done in 
perfect accordance with the wishes of those with 
whom I must naturally wish to act in concert, the 
ecclesiastical authorities of the city. This is a rule 
from which I never depart. 

Mr. Haughton expressed his deep gratification at the 
kind reception the deputation had met with, and said he 
hoped when his Eminence again visited this country they 
would have the pleasure of meeting him and of presenting 
before him the mechanics of Dublin as they really were. 

The deputation then withdrew. 



PROGRESS TO CARLOW. 265 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, accompanied by the 
Rev. Mr. Burke, left the Kingsbridge terminus, on Satur- 
day, by the 12-40 P.M. train, on his way to Carlow. The 
fact of his journey having become known to the people of 
the counties of Dublin and Kildare at the various stations 
along the line, large crowds collected to pay their respects 
to his Eminence and obtain his blessing. At Sallins and 
Athy the numbers collected thronged the arrival platforms 
from end to end, and it was a touching sight to witness 
the eagerness with which warm-hearted and devoted 
people pressed forward to the carriage in which his Emi- 
nence was seated to receive his benediction and kiss his 
hand. Several of the local clergy also were in attendance 
at the stations, and obtained an introduction to his Emi- 
nence, who appeared to be much affected by the warmth 
of the greetings which he every where received. At 
Maganey a large concourse of people had assembled, and 
as the train slowly steamed by the platform they welcomed 
his Eminence with repeated cheers. On quitting the 
train liis Eminence was received by the Very Rev. Canon 
Dunne, P.P., Castledermott ; the Rev. Dr. Quinn,Athy; 
the Rev. Dr. Dunne, President of Carlow College ; the 
Rev. Mr. Fogarty, C.C. ; the Rev. Mr. German, C.C. ; 
the Rev. Mr. Greer, C.C. ; the Rev. Mr. Caffrey, C.C. ; 
the Rev. Mr. Kelly, C.C. ; and conducted through groups 
of people of both sexes, on whom he bestowed his blessing, 
to the carriage of Mr. Strange, his relative, which was in 
readiness to convey him to Graney. House. Surrounded 
by crowds of country people, bearing garlands of flowers 
and branches of evergreens in their hands, the carriage in 
Vv^liich his Eminence, the Rev. Mr. Burke, and other cler- 
gymen were seated, proceeded slowly on its journey, 
amidst loud and hearty cheering from all sides, until the 
church of St. Lawrence O'Toole, near Maganey, was 
reached. Here his Eminence stopped, entered the church, 
and prayed at the altar steps for a short time. After giv- 
ing his l3lessing to the people, he resumed his journey ; 
but before the carriage had proceeded far on the Castle- 
dermott road the multitude accompanying him insisted 
upon unyoking the horses and drawing the vehicle them- 

23 



266 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

selves. In this manner his Eminence entered the town 
of Castledermott. As he passed under the arches of 
evergreens which spanned the streets, bearing inscriptions 
of welcome, he received the most enthusiastic greeting 
from the Catholic inhabitants, whose manner was strik- 
ingly expressive of their respect and affection for their 
illustrious visitor. Having partaken of some refreshment 
at the house of the Rev. Canon Dunne, his Eminence 
proceeded to the chapel, where he was met by the 
parochial clergy, in canonical dress, and conducted to a 
chair of state placed on a richly carpeted dais, prepared 
for the occasion. 

The Very Rev. Pastor then read the following address 
of the Catholic Clergy and Laity of Castledermott to his 
Eminence. 

Address of the Clergy and Laity of the Parish and Dis- 
trict of Castledermott^ to his Eminence Cardinal Wise- 
man, Archbishop of Westminster , SfC, SfC. 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the Clergy and 
Laity of this distant Parish of the Arch-diocese of Dublin, 
tender to your Eminence our profound respect and heart- 
iest welcome, on your gracious visit to your esteemed 
relative, Richard Strange, Esq., our worthy neighboring 
magistrate. We have long felt a just pride in your highly 
cultivated talent, your rich intellectual powers, devoted as 
all have been to the service of God, and to the exaltation 
of his Church. Your presence in this locality, the proba- 
ble birthplace of one, Avho more than six hundred years 
since, in the time of Pope Alexander the Third, was Legate 
of the Holy See in L^eland, St. Lawrence 0' Toole, the 
Patron of this diocese, under whose invocation the church 
your Eminence has just visited is dedicated ; the recollec- 
tion also that the Pope's Nuncio, the celebrated Rinuno- 
cini, more than two hundred years ago, was entertained 
for some days at Kilkea Castle, within view of the spot 
where your Eminence is now seated ; these, witli other 
crowding memories of the past, tell us of the close con- 
nection the Catholic Church in this island has had at all 
times with the Centre of Unity, the successor of Peter, 



PROGRESS TO CARLOW. 267 

the Vicar of Christ, and you, most Illustrious Lord Car- 
dinal, member of the Sacred Conclave that surrounds the 
Throne of Peter, visibly remind us that the ties which 
ever bound the Catholics of Ireland, in the midst of all 
her woes, to the Eoman Pontiff, are only cemented more 
closely by time, and are ever to endure. We feel rejoiced 
that Irish blood flows in your veins ; and we can assure 
your Eminence, that at no period of our eventful history, 
even when, for their fidelity, yonder Abbey was ruined 
and made desolate, were the spiritual children of our 
Common Father more devoted to their Religion, nor 
more zealous to defend its interests, than at the present 
moment. 

Claiming you, most Illustrious Cardinal, with all the 
great qualities that add lustre to your exalted station, as 
our own, we beg to greet your coming with a warm, fa- 
miliar welcome, mingled with a cordial and respectful 
enthusiasm, and we pray that your Eminence may long 
adorn the Church, by your noble career in the cause of 
religion and science, the close connection of which you 
have so powerfully illustrated. In trying times the clergy 
and people of this Archdiocese sympathized with your 
Eminence. We failed not to admire the calmness, the 
fortitude, and the discrimination with which you main- 
tained the great Gospel maxims of rendering to Csesar 
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that 
are God's. May we beg of your Eminence to enter our 
Church of the Assumption, and bestow on us your bless- 
ing, and we shall ever pray that the giver of every good 
gift may pour down upon your Eminence continued 
strength, still further to extend the usefulness of, and 
exalt by your holy labors the Catholic Hierarchy of 
England, established under your Eminence by the present 
Illustrious Pope Pius the Ninth, whom, with your Emi- 
nence, may God preserve. 

John Archbold, Richard Strange, J.P., 

Daniel Caulfield, Laurence Dunne, P.P., 
Fredr. Carroll, J. P., John Fogarty, C.C, 
James T. Hill, James Germaine, C.C, 

Michael Walsh, Anthony Keogh, A.B. 



268 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUE IN IRELAND. 

His Eminence in reply said, he was delighted to find 
amongst the people so great an amount of religion and 
piety, and such manifestations of the works of faith. God 
would reward them, if not in this life, at least in the next, 
the better one, where they would change their life of pri- 
vation for one of eternal bliss. He begged to tell them 
that he would assure the Sovereign Pontiff of their con- 
tinued faithfulness to their holy religion. His Eminence 
then left the church and resumed his seat in his carriage, 
which was conveyed by the people to Graney House, 
where having arrived, he alighted and bestowed his bene- 
diction on the crowd, who, after giving vent to their 
feelings in repeated cheers, turned and proceeded home- 
wards. 



CARLOW. 

On Sunday, the Cardinal was welcomed to Carlow by 
its inhabitants, with an enthusiasm scarcely equalled, and 
certainly not surpassed, in any of the great demonstra- 
tions with which he has been received in other parts of 
Ireland. The Catholic clergy of the town, headed by the 
bishop, the clergy of the adjoining counties, and the whole 
of the Catholic laity, from the humblest peasant to the 
wealthiest land-owner, combined to give the distinguished 
visitor a reception manifesting, in the most decided way, 
their respect for himself personally, and their attachment 
to the Church, of which he is so illustrious a dignitary. 
The majority of the houses in the town were decorated 
with evergreens and flowers ; Tullow Street and College 
Street were crossed at various points with arches of leaves 
and flowers ; while flags and t3anners floated in the air, 
bearing on them words of welcome to his Eminence. 
From an early hour in the forenoon the people of the 
neighboring counties continued to pour into the town, 
animated with the strongest desire to participate in the 



CARLOW. 269 

memorable event of the day. Shortly after eleven o'clock 
his Eminence, accompanied by Mr. Strange, arrived by 
the Dublin road, preceded and followed by an immense 
concourse of the inhabitants of the county, who had met 
him about a mile from Mr. Bruen's residence, outside the 
town, and who, having dispensed with the horses, drew 
the vehicle themselves, amidst cheering, waving of hats, 
and other demonstrations of applause. At the college 
•gate, and at the entrance to the cathedral, immense 
crowds had assembled, and as the carriage drew near they 
greeted his Eminence with enthusiastic plaudits. Accom- 
panied by a large body of the people bearing branches of 
evergreens in their hands, and amidst the warmest tokens 
of regard from the entire assemblage, the carriage of 
his Eminence proceeded through the park, the clerical 
and lay students, who lined the carriage way, attired in 
academic costume, cheering vehemently as he passed 
along to the grand entrance. Here he was received by 
the Very Rev. Dr. Dunne, President of the college ; the 
Very Rev. Dr. Magee, Vice-President ; the Very Rev. Dr. 
Healy, V.G; the Very Rev. Dr. Taylor, P.P. ; the Rev. 
Jas. Hughes, Administrator of Carlow, and other clergy- 
men, and conducted to his apartment, where he assumed 
his robes to preside at High Mass. 

THE HIGH MASS AND SERMON. 

As early as ten o'clock the holders of tickets of admis- 
sion to the cathedral commenced to take up their seats in 
their respective compartments, and in less than an hour 
from that time an immense congregation, including the 
leading Catholic gentry of Carlow and the adjoining 
counties, had assembled within the sacred walls to assist 
at the celebration of the divine mysteries. The lay stu- 
dents of the college occupied places specially reserved for 
them in the nave, and' within the sanctuary the clerical 
students, attired in academic costume, were ranged in 
double line at each side and behind the altar, which is 
erected in the centre of the enclosure. At the extreme 
left of the altar was placed the throne of state for his 
Eminence. It was hung with white drapery, edged with 
23* 



270 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

scarlet, the overhanging canopy being richly fringed with 
material of the same color. The clergy of the diocese 
and other priests assembled shortly before twelve o'clock 
inside tlie sanctuary. Amongst the clergy present were — 

Yery Rev. Dr. Dunne, President of Carlow College ; 
Yery Rev. Dr. Magee, Yice-President ; Yery Rev. P. 
Healy, Y.G. ; Yery Rev. P. O'Brennan, P.P. ; Rev. J. 
Delany, P.P. ; Rev. Eugene O'Reilly, P.P. ; Rev. Mr. 
Kent, P.P., Waterford ; Rev. J. Dunne, P.P. ; Rev. W. 
Treacy, P.P.. Kilcock ; Rev. Mr. Scally, Knocktopher ; 
Rev. D. Nolan, P.P. ; Rev. D. McCarthy, P.P. ; Rev. T. 
Caliill, S.J., Clongowes College ; Rev. James O'Gorman, 
Castlecomer ; Rev. P. Carey, C.C. ; Rev. J. Butler ; 
Rev. J. Farrell ; Rev. P. Poland ; Rev. Mr. Conry ; Rev. 
T. Cullen ; Rev. T. Mulhall ; Rev. Canon Dunne, &c. 

Shortly after twelve o'clock his Eminence, attired in 
robes of scarlet silk, with the white ermine cape, and 
wearing the pectoral cross, came forth from the sacristy, 
attended by two train bearers, and having bowed to the 
Right Rev. Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, 
who, in episcopal dress, and wearing the mitre, awaited 
his Eminence, was conducted to the throne. Solemn 
Pontifical High Mass, Coram Cardinale, was then com- 
menced, the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh officiating as high 
priest celebrant, the Rev. J. Cavanagh, as deacon, and 
the Rev. T. Tynan, as sub-deacon. The Rev. Dean 
Hughes, Administrator, officiated as presbyter assistant, 
and the Rev. Mr. Doyle as master of the ceremonies. 
The assistant priests at the Cardinal's throne were the 
Rev. Dr. Taylor, P.P., and the Rev. Mr. Burke. Haydn's 
Mass, No. 3, was sung by the choir ; the responses were 
given by a number of the students. 

The gospel having been sung, liis Eminence advanced 
to the foot of the sanctuary, and proceeded to deliver his 
sermon, taking his text from the third chapter of the 
Epistle to the Ephesians, fourteenth verse, read in the 
epistle of the day : — " For which cause I bow my knees 
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all pa- 
ternity in heaven and earth is named, that you may be 
able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and 



CARLOW. 271 

the height, and depth, and know also the charity of 
Christ, which embraceth all knowledge." 



They were told by the apostle that God was 
charity (that is, love), and this love is unbounded, 
infinite like Himself, extending from end to end, 
from eternity to eternity. How, then, could they 
reduce it to a scale, so as to measure its dimen- 
sions ? Where should they find the arm which 
could embrace the whole breadth of that divine 
charity ? where the ladder, even of Jacob, by which 
angels ascended and descended, by which they 
should reach its height, which was above the high- 
est heaven ? Where would they seek the fathom 
line with which to sound the depths of that abyss ? 
where the chain by which to reduce to measure its 
length, and thus form some idea of God's charity ? 
It was clear that while it is incapable of measure- 
ment, not only by our limited intelligence, but even 
by the power of the highest and purest spirits, still 
it has pleased God to manifest it to us, so as to 
enable us to measure it to a certain extent. It was 
well, then, to take the means which the apostle had 
described to them, and see if they could not com- 
prehend, in some degree, this measurement of the 
immense charity of God. 

What were the dimensions of God's charity ? 
what was its breadth ? what its length ? what its 
height ? and what its depth ? The breadth of 
God's charity extended from side to side. Every 



272 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

way they cast their eyes, the charity, and love, and 
kindness of God met them. In every object, from 
the sky above to the smallest production of the 
field, there was the hand of God creating, with 
infinite fecundity, whatever could make the life of 
man physically and materially happy. The love 
of God met them in their every-day path through 
life. They knew it was in every portion of the 
magnificent system which moved round the sun ; 
it was, indeed, vast and immeasurable ; such was 
the breadth of God's love. 

But Yfho should speak of its length ? Could they 
form a scale for the dimensions of the love of God ? 
Should they go back beyond creation, and speak of 
His eternal love for uncreated man ? They might, 
at least, begin at the first fastening of that chain 
of love by its earliest link here on earth, and that 
would serve them as a starting point. Who did 
not believe that the first manifestation of God's 
love to man was the fulfilment of an eternal inten- 
tion, and that the first act of love which He per- 
formed towards the human race had never for an 
instant (so to speak) departed from His mind. So 
that the measure of God's visible mercies, from the 
first instant of the creation until the end of time, 
had been but a diminutive scale by which they 
might estimate all that preceded it, while they 
should consider every one of those acts of His love 
as infinite as Himself; and as He had continued 
adding link to link to this chain of His mercy, so 



CARLO W. 27 



o 



after their days it would be perpetuated unfailing 
to the end of time. The length of God's love had 
no more limits than its breadth. But' would the 
length of God's mercy be cut short when the world 
was destroyed ? 0, no ; it would be continued in 
the uninterrupted and unvaried duration of His 
own existence during all eternity, and His charity 
and love would be exercised so long as He existed. 
The breadth of God's love, then, was immensity, 
and its length eternity. 

And vf hat was the height of this charity of God ? 
It reached, in like manner, to Himself The height 
of God's charity began only where His heavenly 
kingdom was. Starting, then, from this point, let 
them look upwards, and see what God had done to 
give them some measure of His love for man. 
What could God do more than communicate Him- 
self with His love to those who approach Him ? 
Was it possible to conceive love greater and more 
unbounded than was thus represented to them? 
Such, then, was the height of the love of God — 
that love which, having made us for Himself, raises 
us up one day to the seeing, possessing, enjoying 
of Himself as He is, and thus to the very level 
almost of His own divine essence. The measure 
of the height of God's love is thus Himself, the 
sublimely exalted above all creation. 

But who could measure the depths of His love ? 
What a worm man is when com]3ared with the 
Almighty — a grain of sand in His eyes ! What 



274 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

was mail that God should be mindful of him? 
Let the sinner give the measure of this depth of 
God's charity. Let him describe the frightful gulf 
in which he has felt himself plunged, the dark and 
loathsome billows in which he has been tossed, the 
depths of that remorse, of that despair, into which 
he has been abandoned. Then let him say how 
into that abyss the charity of our Lord Jesus Christ 
descended like a bright and cheering ray of light, 
dispelled the gloom, stilled the storm, plucked him 
thence, taking him by the hand, and raised him 
even to the height of His own favor and grace. 
But the essential charity of God they should not 
presume to fathom. It was inexplicable ; it was 
that which brought Him down from heaven to give 
Himself to us as an offering for sin. To under- 
stand His charity, they must wait until they could 
look into that burning mirror in which every lesson 
of His life was written with a pen of fxre, and then 
they would find that, immeasurable as had been 
the outward love of God, there was an abyss going 
to the very centre of that furnace of love, in which 
was buried the inward love of Christ for man. 

The love of their blessed mother the Church re- 
sembled that of their Saviour in its breadth, height, 
length, and depth. Of the depth of her charity, 
the very object for which he addressed them gave 
evidence. It sought wretchedness in every recess 
of life, plunged into the deepest and most repulsive 
abysses of misery, and snatched therefrom the 



CARLOW. 275 

unfortunate soul. It was for an institution of such 
a charitable character that he had come to address 
them. He called upon them to support an institu- 
tion which was indefatigable in carrying out its 
objects, but which required their nourishing care. 
He would exhort them to contribute with all the 
generosity that characterized their country towards 
the support of a foundation by which so much was 
done for the poor, who really had but little comfort 
on earth ; to be the means of snatching them from 
misery, and thus imitate our blessed Lord in seeking 
the lost sheep, and being the means of raising many 
a poor Christian soul, sinking unseen into perdition, 
to enjoy everlasting happiness. 

The discourse of his Eminence, of which the above is 
but a brief summary, was listened to with the deepest 
attention by the congregation. The institution for which 
this sermon was delivered, and a most liberal collection 
made, was the Convent of Mary, of which the Rev. 
Mother Rose Strange is first cousin to his Eminence, and 
the religious of which were among the Crimean nuns. It 
was to enable them to finish their House of Mercy that 
the Cardinal preached. 

His Eminence having resumed his seat on the throne. 
High Mass was proceeded with. At its conchision his 
Eminence and the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh, together with 
the large body of clergy and students within the sanctuary, 
passed into the sacristy, and the immense congregation 
quitted the catliedral. 

ENTERTAINMENT AT THE COLLEGE, AND PRESENTATION OP 
ADDRESSES TO HIS EMINENCE. 

His Eminence was afterwards received by the president 
and vice-president at an entertainment in the academy 



276 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

hall of the college, the walls of which in several places 
were decorated with flowers. At two o'clock the com- 
pany, to the number of one hundred, assumed their places 
at the tables. The president and vice-president presided. 
On the right hand of the former sat his Eminence. Nearly 
the entire of the clergy who attended at High Mass were 
present ; and amongst the laity were the following : — 

Mr. Dunne, M.P. ; Mr. Blake, M.P., the Mayor of 
Waterford ; Mr. Meagher, Sir J. R. Wolsey, Mr. Blake- 
ney, Richard Strange, Mr. Price, Carlow Post; Mr. 
Keogh, Mr. A. Keogh, barrister ; Mr. Mansfield, Mr. J. 
Fitzgerald, D. Walshe, and Patrick Cahill, Esq., LL.D. 

The entertainment having concluded, his Eminence 
was conducted to the study hall to receive several ad- 
dresses. The entire of the students had assembled within 
the hall, awaiting the arrival of the Cardinal ; and when 
he entered, attended by the Rev. Mr. Burke, and accom- 
panied by the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh and a large body of 
the clergy and laity, they received him with loud and 
prolonged cheers. Having taken his seat upon a chair 
covered with crimson cloth, he proceeded to hear the 
addresses. 

The Right Rev. Dr. Walsh read the address of the 
bishop and clergy as follows : — 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the Bishop and 
Clergy of the diocese assembled at Carlow, beg most 
respectfully to tender to your Eminence the expression of 
the sincere and cordial welcome with which we hail your 
arrival in OTir town. The honor which this visit confers 
upon us we duly appreciate, and the remembrance of it 
we shall, with deep and abiding gratitude, preserve. The 
many virtues which adorn your character, the great and 
important services rendered by your Eminence to litera- 
ture and to religion, and your exalted station in the 
Church, claim our reverence, our thankfulness, and admi- 
ration. We feel that we cannot adequately express the 
sentiments whicli the contemplation of your brilliant and 
useful career awakened ; and we rely upon your kind 
consideration to accept the assurance of our desire to 
convey them to your Eminence, if we could command 



CARLOW. 277 

language for their beseeming expression. It is beautiful 
to behold religion honored by science, and science hal- 
lowed by religion ; of this happy harmony, so lucidly dis- 
played in your writings, your life affords a graphic and 
felicitous illustration. To your exalted worth, the posi- 
tion to which your Eminence has been elevated bears 
ample and conclusive attestation. Then it is meet that 
we offer the tribute of our profound and reverential 
esteem to one whom the supreme Pontiff delighted so to 
honor. The association of your Eminence with the Sacred 
College invests you with strong additional claims to our 
veneration. The inflexible adherence of the Irish people 
to our holy faith necessarily involves a devoted attachment 
to the centre of Catholic unity. Then, the filial affection 
which we warmly and ever cherished for Christ's Vicar 
upon earth justly leads us to receive with the greater 
regard and reverence a prelate associated, as your Emi- 
nence, with the Council of the Holy Father. In your 
passage through this country, your Eminence, we are 
sure, witnessed with deep and grateful feelings of religious 
emotion, the clear evidences of the lively faith with which, 
through the bounty of the Giver of all good gifts, this 
country is blessed. The structures which you saw every 
where raised for the diffusion of knowledge, for the honor 
of religion, for the glory of God, reveal the generous and 
enlightened religious sentiment of a people, who, out of 
their poverty, expended so much, so well for such noble 
and holy purposes. Wo are confident that this visit to 
the land of your ancient and respected lineage will verify 
the traditions your Eminence heard in your childhood of 
a people whose character so many fine qualities illuminate, 
and whose sorrows and whose sufferings impart a deeply 
touching interest to their checkered history, wlio, in the 
tribulation with which, in the inscrutable ways of His 
adorable providence, God permitteth them to be chastened, 
kept their eyes ever steadily fixed upon the cloud of 
witnesses over their head, their predecessors in faith, and 
looking upon Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, were 
in the dark hour of their affliction consoled, directed, and 
sustained by the liglit and by the promises that holy faith 
24 



278 CAEDiNAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

presents. And when yonr Eminence will have returned 
to London, we think that the magnificence of England 
will not be able to lessen the admiration which the simple 
and inartificial beauty of Ireland evokes. And when you 
reflect upon the divers rich blessings bestowed by the 
Almighty upon these twin islands, your Eminence will, no 
doubt, pray, even more earnestly than before, that we all 
may with humble thankfulness properly employ the gifts 
of Heaven, and that to the bond which links us in com- 
mon fealty to our gracious Queen there may be added 
the hallowing ties which a Cin-istian consideration for 
each other, and an interchange of kind offices between the 
people of these islands, cannot, under the divine blessing, 
fail happily to create. 

The reading of the address was frequently interrupted 
by bursts of applause from the students. 

His Eminence said, — 

He accepted with sincere gratitude the warm- 
hearted address which his lordship had conde- 
scended to read on behalf of his diocese ; and he 
could not but feel a peculiar emotion on finding 
himself for the first time among a clergy with whom, 
if he had not been previously personally acquainted, 
he, at least, had been connected by the most pleas- 
ing relations, and, at the same time, by his strong 
and lona;-standin2: feelins:, that that diocese and 
town might be considered as the very spring and 
centre of feelings which had acted powerfully 
through the whole of Ireland. He did not allude 
merely to the college — to the instrument which it 
had been, under Providence, for working out great 
spiritual good. He could not that morning, when, 
for the first time, addressing such a vast multitude 



CARLO w. 279 

in their noble and spacious cathedral, help thinking, 
in the first place, how, although it might not vie 
with many other structures in the accuracy of its 
architecture, or the beauty of its ornamentation, 
it still deserved to be considered a gigantic step in 
advance of the time when it was erected. 

But there was one object there, a tomb, which 
reminded him how much of the awakening of a 
powerful religious feeling in Ireland was due to 
that great and noble theologian, the pride of his 
country, "J. K. L." He remembered, when young 
himself, reading the glowing letters which awak- 
ened anew an enthusiastic feeling in every one wdio 
perused them, which, while they confounded the 
enemies of the faith, encouraged its friends, and 
which might be said to be the first trumpet-note of 
that outspoken Catholicity and bold avowal of 
faith which had since become the general tone of 
the country. He remembered the enemies of their 
faith perplexed — struck by wonder at the man 
whose courage and ability, and address and learn- 
ing, and eloquence enabled him to speak so power- 
fully in defence and vindication of his religion. To 
the illustrious "J. K. L." and another great man 
closely connected with him in feeling and views, 
Dr. Milner, the Catholics of the United Kingdom 
were indebted, in an eminent degree ; for the writ- 
ings of those learned divines formed the foundation 
of that powerful mode which had since prevailed 
in advocating and proving Catholic doctrines, and 



280 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

claiming Avitliout shrinking all Catholic rights. Pie 
could not but feel a peculiar interest in the clergy 
of that diocese ; and he knew that their admirable 
bishop, on whom the double mantle of the great 
Dr. Dojle had descended — not only of Episco- 
pacy, but of relationship and blood — - was in every 
way worthy of such a descent, and entitled in a 
special manner to their veneration and affection. 

His Eminence then proceeded to express his gratifica- 
tion at meeting so many youthful friends, for such he 
considered all collegians, and the pleasure he should feel 
if he might think that his presence there that day in any 
way forwarded the important objects which that institu- 
tion strove to advance. 

He thanked them sincerely for the kind expres- 
sions used towards himself personally, and avowed 
how grateful it w^as to him to be assured that any 
little efforts which he had made in the cultivation 
of sacred science were not without their fruit ; and 
that his presence there would be an encouragement 
to the students — especially to those who w^ere de- 
voting themselves to the cultivation of science, 
sacred and profane — to persevere in their studies, 
and so continue the succession of enhghtened and" 
virtuous clergy, which particularly belonged to the 
diocese. In speaking thus, he wished to be under- 
stood as not making any invidious distinctions or 
comparison. He believed that in piety — in ear- 
nest desire to propagate the truth, the priests of 
Ireland were every where the same. He believed 



CARLO W. 281 

that the noble body of clergy who occupied that 
diocese formed only part of a glorious whole : and 
so that when every other thought should be made 
subservient by the people to that of promoting 
their spiritual welfare and advancing religion^ the 
triumph of Ireland would be accomplished. The 
majestic and sacred structures which were being 
raised up all over the land — the useful and admi- 
rable institutions of every sort which were estab- 
lished and being supported^ were evidences of a 
future for Ireland which the youth around might 
justly hope to witness with pride. It was sufficient 
for those more advanced in years to see the dawn, 
and he could assure his youthful friends that it was 
a source of pleasure to them to think that the 
young students present that day would live to reap 
in joy and thanksgiving what they had, to some 
extent, sown amidst tears and sorrow. 

The Ycry Rev. Dr. Dunne, President, read the address 
of the college, as follows : — 

May it please your EaiiNENCE, — We, the President, 
Professors, and Students of St. Patrick's College, Carlow, 
beg to avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by your 
visit to tender to your Eminence the tribute of our pro- 
found respect for the exalted station which you occupy, 
and the many noble qualities which adorn your character. 
The devotion to the chair of St. Peter, which has ever 
characterized the Irish people, has been warmed into 
increased fervor by the presence amongst them of one of 
the most illustrious members of the sacred college, and 
the privilege now afforded, after ages of suffering and 
fidelity, of thus publicly receiving and doing honor to a 
prince of the Church has awakened the enthusiasm which 
24* 



282 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

has everywhere greeted your arrivaL But in doing hom- 
age to your Eminence, it is not alone to the purple or the 
prince the tribute is paid, but to exalted virtue and gen- 
ius, rare endowments, and deep and varied learning, such 
as have rendered your Eminence illustrious among the 
learned of Europe. There is no one who must not ad- 
mire the profound scholar and accomplished writer who 
has clothed the mysteries of science in the beauties of 
his native tongue, and whose learned productions afford 
the best practical refutation of the oft-repeated calumny 
of those who would represent religion as the enemy of 
science. To the |)rofessor, however, and the student your 
Eminence's visit is a source of more than ordinary inter- 
est. They have long been accustomed to regard your 
Eminence's life as a type of the virtues which they should 
practise, and your works as a model of those attainments 
which it should be their ambition to cultivate. To them, 
therefore, your presence will serve as a new inspiration to 
study, a fresh impulse to energy and labor. They will 
be reminded by it of the wonderful results which may be 
accomplished by the combined efforts of genius and in- 
dustry, and, whilst glorying in the elevation to which 
your Eminence's virtue and learning have raised you, 
they will feel proud of that holy and venerable Church 
which, in promoting to dignity and place, pays regard to 
merit alone. To the learned and unlearned alike your 
Eminence's life is a useful and consoling lesson. To the 
one your inimitable works point out the way to true intel- 
lectual glory ; to the other your zeal and untiring labor 
in the vineyard show the value of true Cliristian devotion. 
Both may learn how well the sublimest ideas of philosophy 
and the highest attainments of literature may be asso- 
ciated with the simplest and purest virtues of the Gospel. 
Earnestly begging your Eminence's benediction on our 
institution, we fervently pray that the Almighty Dispenser 
of all good gifts may grant to your Eminence length of 
days and wisdom, and strength to extend the kingdom of 
Christ and His glory upon earth. 

During the reading of the address the students fre- 
quently expressed their approbation by loud plaudits. 



CARLOW. 283 

His Eminence, in replying, thanked them sincerely for 
their kind references to him, and said, — 

A great part of his life had been passed within 
the walls of various colleges, and he might say that 
until he was launched on the turbulent ocean of 
the London diocese he had never lived out of col- 
lege. All his associations of early happiness, and 
certainly all those of improvement and study, were 
intimately connected with college life ; and it was 
his experience that after leaving college to enter on 
the active duties of life little progress was made in 
learning or scientific acquirements. Whatever was 
acquired was acquired within the walls of college. 

His Eminence, in impressing upon the students the 
importance of attending earnestly to their studies, men- 
tioned, in referen3e to himself, — 

That in his later life he frequently made use of 
such poor knowledge as he had gained while a 
student in college, and recorded in notes, not think- 
ing then that it would be afterwards of any use. 
Still he could say that the old papers which he 
sometimes searched for and found — written in ink 
now nearly effaced — often proved of the utmost 
service to him in his writings ; and, therefore, he 
advised young men to take his counsel in that par- 
ticular, and treasure up in a permanent form every 
piece of valuable information, classical, scientific, 
and of any other character, which they might now 
pick up. 



284 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

Having spoken of their duties, lie had now to 
say a word on another subject. Their worthy 
president had alluded to the position, which he did 
not claim to be in the slightest degree w^orthy of, 
but which it had pleased Divine Providence, through 
the generosity of the most kind and benevolent 
father of the faithful, to bestow upon him. He did 
not claim any great privileges, or make any preten- 
sions further than what belonged to his position, 
and those he could not give up. He was not 
allowed to give them up ; and their president was 
the last person in the world that would wish him 
to do so. Accordingly, by virtue of such privi- 
leges, he had asked for three holidays for the boys. 
He was obliged to be very moderate, because, hav- 
ing been for some years himself the president of a 
college, he respected discipline'. He did not wish 
to exceed, but still he could not give up his privi- 
leges ; and, perhaps, if there were no other reason, 
this circumstance might render this occasion mem- 
orable. From what he knew and had heard of 
their institution, he believed it was a great blessing 
to Carlow, to the diocese, and to Ireland, that such 
a college existed ; and, in thanking them again, he 
would conjure the youth assembled to make the 
best use of the valuable time which they had at 
their disposal, to advance themselves in every 
branch of sacred and secular knowledge. 

Addresses from the Catechism Society, the Lay Society 
of St. Yincent de Paul, and the Cathohc Institute of 



KILKENNY. 285 

Carlow, were in turn presented to his Eminence, who, in 
his replies, eulogized the exertions of each respectively 
in the cause of religion and morality, and expressed the 
deep interest he took in the spreading of kindred societies 
throughout the country. His Eminence then left the 
throne, and, conducted by the Very Rev. the President, 
proceeded to visit some of the college buildings. In the 
evening, after paying a visit to the two convents, his 
Eminence dined with the Right Rev. Dr. Walsh, at Bra- 
ganza, and met a large party of the clergy and gentry of 
the district. 



KILKENNY. 

On Monday his Eminence arrived at Kilkenny from 
Carlow, and remained for a few hours. The progress of 
the Cardinal from Carlow to Kilkenny was marked by 
exhibitions of popular esteem and respect, similar to those 
by which it had been characterized in other districts. At 
every station were collected crowds of people, who availed 
themselves of the short stoppage of the train to get his 
Eminence's blessing. At Kilkenny, however, the recep- 
tion which awaited him far exceeded in warmth any that 
had been accorded to him previously. The platform at 
the railway station was thronged to excess with people of 
all classes ; and so eagerly did they close around the car- 
riage in which his Eminence sat that it was with much 
difficulty he was enabled to step to the platform. As 
soon as he left the carriage he was cheered most heartily, 
and immediately received the address presented by the 
Mayor of Kilkenny, and corporation, in official costume, 
and with their mace borne before them. He was then 
accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Larkin, Administrator, and 
the rest of the local clergy, the high sheriff, and several 
members of the corporation. The extensive space in front 
of the railway station, and far away towards the city, 
was completely blocked up with people ; nor could there 
have been less than from six to seven thousand persons 



286 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

present. Througli this multitude his Eminence walked, 
accompanied by the gentlemen already mentioned, bless- 
ing the people as they knelt around him, to the church, 
where the following addresses were presented to him. 
The first was from the burgesses, trades, and citizens at 
large, which was presented by the worthy high sheriff, 
and is as follows : — 

At a meeting of the burgesses, trades, and inhabitants 
at large of the city of Kilkenny, duly convened, at St. 
James's Green, the following address was agreed upon, 
and handed to the high sheriff for presentation to his 
Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster : — 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the burgesses, 
trades, and inhabitants at large of the city of Kilkenny, 
depute our high sheriff to express to your Eminence the 
joy we experience on your visit to this our ancient city, 
and to make known to you the pride we feel in welcoming 
your advent amongst us, and in paying honor to one who 
has already been honored by all Europe. It is an ancient 
custom to liail the return of those who have been long 
absent from the home of their forefathers ; but how much 
more agreeable is it to welcome one who not merely 
comes amongst ns as one of the old stock, but who has 
also the additional claim of being a Prince of the Cath- 
olic Church, and one of the most distinguished scholars 
of the age. Proud of you as a scion of one of our an- 
cient families, proud of you for your virtues, your learn- 
ing, and your distinguished abilities, we approach your 
Eminence to tender you our profound and heartfelt re- 
spect, and to express our appreciation, however humble, 
of the varied acquirements and illustrious virtues which 
have already won for your Eminence the applause and 
approbation of the world. In conclusion, we shall long 
treasure the memory of this day in our hearts, and pray 
that your Eminence may be long spared to fulfil the mis- 
sion for which Providence has destined you. 

George Paul Helsham, LL.D., M.R.LA. 

Besides the high sheriff, the members of the corporation, 
Mr. Sullivan, M.P., and several others of the leading 
gentry of the city were present. 



KILKENNY. 287 

The next address was from the Society of St. Yincent 
de Paul, which was as follows : — 

May it please your Eminence, — The members of the 
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Kilkenny, hail your arri- 
val to the old city of St. Canice with feelings of inex- 
pressible delight. Allow us to tender you our respect, 
homage, and veneration, as a prince of the Church. 
Deeply grateful for the marked favor bestowed by your 
Eminence on our society elsewhere, and anxious to tender 
you the love and fidelity of our conference in this city, 
permit us to subscribe ourselves on behalf of our brothers, 
my Lord Cardinal, your obedient and humble servants 
(for Edmond Smith wick, President). 

M. J. Walsh, Vice-President. 

John Feehan, Hon. Sec. 

Conference of St. Mary, Kilkenny, 13th Sept., 1858. 

Amongst the members of the society present were 
Messrs. Walsh, vice-president ; Mathew Rowan, John 
Monck, Thomas Halpin, Peter O'Callaghan, William 
O'Donnell, John Sweetman, John ColFey, J. Healy, Mi- 
chael Peilly, Michael Byrne, and John Feehan, Honorary 
Secretary. 

The address from the Catholic Young Men's Society 
was then read as follows, by the president, Mr. P. Y. 
O'Callaghan : — 

May it please your Eminence, — We, the members of 
the Kilkeiuiy Catholic Young Men's Society, avail our- 
selves of your presence amongst us to bid you welcome to 
this ancient city, and to give expression to our feelings 
towards you as a prince of the Church, as a scholar of 
European fome, and a descendant of one of the most an- 
cient families of our country. We approach vour Emi- 
nence not only on behalf of the Young Men's Society of 
this city, but also on behalf of the young men of Kilkenny 
generally, to offer you the homage due to your exalted 
station, to express our admiration of your virtues and 
your genius, and to announce to you the pleasing intelli- 
gence that Kilkenny, as of old, is still Catholic to the 



288 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

core, and the young Irishmen of to-day will never shame 
the glory of their sires. We approach your Eminence, 
first, because our society is Catholic, to tender our pro- 
found homage to a prince and prelate of the Church ; 
secondly, because our society is literary, to pay you that 
respect to which you are entitled as one of the most dis- 
tinguished scholars of the age ; and, thirdly, because our 
society is Irish, to manifest towards the Church and her 
prelates that undying attachment which has ever been 
cliaracteristic of our forefathers. We approach your 
Eminence upon this occasion because we see in your life 
the reflection of the sufferings and glory of the Church. 
You resemble it in your virtues, by the mission you have 
undertaken and tlie good works you have accomplished. 
You resemble it in your zeal, by the untiring energy with 
which you have ever labored in the vineyard of Christ. 
You resemble it in your courage, for you have never fal- 
tered in proclaiming the truth and in defending it at all 
hazards. You resemble it in your wisdom, for it seems as 
if Providence had specially gifted you with a knowledge 
of the proper time and manner to carry out His beneficent 
design, and witli that prudence which enables you to con- 
ciliate while you confound your enemies. You resemble 
it in the persecutions you have endured, and to which 
you are still subjected ; but from which, like the Church 
itself, you have emerged triumphant. You resemble it 
in your victories, for the storms of persecution that raged 
around you only served to render the virtues of your 
character and t'.e truth of your mission still more con- 
spicuous, till your enemies were confounded or scattered, 
while others knelt down for your benediction, and sought 
peace and shelter under the shadow of your protection. 
And you resemble it, also, in your unceasing and distin- 
guished efforts to connect science with religion, and to 
lift up the literature of the age to a pinnacle of glory, 
from which the throne of the Most High should be ever 
visible. For these reasons we approach your Eminence 
upon this occasion to tell you what the young men of 
Ireland think of you, and to inform you of the sentiments 
they entertain towards yourself, and also towards that 



KILKENNY. 289 

good old Cluircli of whicli you are the ornament and 
glory. If you had come amongst us in your capacity 
as an illustrious member of that sacred senate whose laws 
are obeyed throughout the universe, and in no country 
more loyally and lovingly than in Ireland — if you had 
come amongst us in that capacity it would be no wonder 
that the love and admiration of a faithful people should 
be manifested towards you ; but as the best marksman is 
known by taking the bird on the wing, so do we testify 
our unbounded respect and attachment towards you by 
availing ourselves of this, your flying visit to our city, to 
express our admiration of your virtues and your genius, 
and our gratitude for the manifold blessings which your 
zeal and talents have conferred upon the Church of God. 
But let us not forget that there are words which you 
would rather hear than those of admiration or welcome 
— we mean the assurance that the young men of Ireland 
are Catholic to the core, that they are even more Romau 
than their fathers were in the brave days of old ; and we 
v.^ould beg of your Eminence, when next your eyes are 
blessed with the sight of the Supreme Pontiff, the illustri- 
ous and beloved Pius the Ninth, to assure his Holiness 
that, no matter how the youth of other countries may be 
carried away by the vain fancies of philosophy or infidelity, 
the youth of Ireland will ever remain faithful to the chair 
of Peter. Tell his Holiness that we have the sufferings 
of our forefathers, the memories of old, and the victories 
of our own day, as it were, the shadows of the cross and 
the glory of Thabor, to lift up our heti^ts to that ancient 
faith for which our country suffered so much, and which 
she has never for one moment deserted. Tell his Holiness 
that the young men of Ireland will never shame their 
sires, and that their faith is almost as impregnable as the 
rock of Rome itself. Tell him that the spiritual telegraph 
of Catholicity, which for more than 1,400 years has con- 
nected Ireland with the Eternal City, has never been 
broken, and that, although storms may rage, the electric 
link of faith shall still remain unshaken, binding our 
hearts forever to the chair of Saint Peter. 



25 



Peter Y. O'Callaghan, President. 



290 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

Amongst the other members present were, — The Rev. 
T. Hennessy, Spiritual Guardian ; Rev. J. Kelly, Mr. P. 
A. Aylward, Treasurer ; Mr. John Feehan, Vice-Presi- 
dent ; Mr. M. J. Potter and Mr. Jackson, Secretaries ; 
Mr. W. Ennis, Librarian ; Messrs. P. Maher, J. Murphy, 
E. A, Devereux ; J. Labarte, C. Quinn, E. O'Callaghan, 
W. Meighan, M. Rowan. 



WATERFORD. 

His Eminence arrived in Waterford on Monday evening, 
his progress having been, as usual, of the most gratifying 
description. At the various stations between Kilkenny 
and Waterford his Eminence entered familiarly into con- 
versation with those who had gathered to get his blessing. 
It was pleasing to notice the simple and original, and yet 
effective and touching manner in which these poor people 
gave expression to their feelings. At one of the stations 
a very interesting incident occurred. Eight or ten fine 
little children were successively elevated by a peasant to 
the window of the carriage in which his Eminence was 
seated, for the purpose of procuring his Eminence's 
blessing for the children, which he bestowed on them in 
the kindest manner, placing his hand as he did so affec- 
tionately on the head of each little one that was present- 
ed to him. His Eminence appeared much struck, and 
greatly pleased at this little incident. At the Thomas- 
town station, the Rev. Mr. Keally, P.P., of that district, 
had an audience with his Eminence on general matters 
appertaining to tlie parish. At the Waterford station a 
very large number of persons assembled awaiting the 
arrival of his Eminence. The circumstance, however, 
that it was doubtful until the last moment whether the 
time at the disposal of his Eminence would permit him to 
visit Waterford prevented that organized manifestation 
of public feeling which no doubt would otherwise have 



WATERFORD. 291 

marked his visit to this city. His Eminence was received 
by the Mayor of Waterford, Mr. Blake, M.P. ; Peter 
Strange, Esq. ; Rev. J. Magner, Thomas Meagher, Esq., 
J.P. ; J. O'Dwyer, Esq., T.C. ; C. Redmond, Esq., T.C. ; 
and Alderman Kenny. Loud cheers greeted him as he 
left the station and took his seat in the carriage of Peter 
Strange, Esq., his cousin, to proceed to Aylwardstown, 
the residence of that gentleman, where he passed the 
night. A large crowd followed the carriage for a consid- 
erable distance, and cheered his Eminence as he drove oflf. 

On Tuesday evening the Cardinal returned to Water- 
ford, and meanwhile arrangements had been made by the 
inhabitants to give a public reception to his Eminence. 

Amongst those who assembled to meet his Eminence 
were — Rev. P. Kent, Rev. E. Walsh, C.C, St. Patrick's 
Parish; Rev. D. M'Kenna, C.C. ; Rev. E. Browne, C.C. ; 
Rev. G. Cummins, C.C. ; Rev. M. Ahearn, C.C. ; Rev. P. 
Delany, President, Rev. James Cleary, St. John's Col- 
lege ; Rev. F. O'Brien, C.C. ; Rev. J. Magner, O.S.F. ; 
Rev. Mr. Power, O.S.F. ; Rev. C. Fitzgerald, O.S.F. ; 
Rev. M. Molony, O.S.D. ; Rev. E. Ryan, D.D., C.C, Rev. 
R. Dunphy, C.C, Trinity Without; (the Right Rev. Dr. 
O'Brien, Bishop of Waterford, was at the time at Harrow- 
gate) ; Rev. N. Cantwell, P.P., Rev. N. Phelan, CC, 
Tramore ; Rev. E. O'Donnell, P.P. ; Rev. W. Curran, CC. ; 
Rev. E. Phelan, C.C, Passage East; Rev. M. Walshe, 
P.P., Dunhill ; Rev. J. Joy, CC. ; Rev. J. M'Carthy, 
Rev. D. Moriarty, CC ; Rev. J. Terry, Portlaw ; Rev. 
R. Power, P.P., Newtown ; Rev. J. Shanahan, CC. ; 
Rev. E. Mooney, CC. ; Rev. J. Casey, P.P.; Rev. M. 
Tracy, CC, Kilrossinty ; Rev. D. Hally, P.P., Dungar- 
van ; Rev. R. Henneberry, Rev. J. Dee, CC, Carrick- 
beg; Rev. G. Connolly, P.P.; Rev. C Power, C.C; 
Rev. T. O'Connell, CC. ; Rev. Mr. O'Donnell, C.C, Car- 
rickmore ; Yery Rev. Dr. Burke, P.P., Y.G. ; Rev. R. 
Henneberry, CC. ; Rev. A. Walsh, C.C. ; Rev. J. Phelan, 
C.C, SS. Peter's and Paul's, Clonmel ; Rev. J. Baldwin, 
P.P. ; Rev. D. Crotty, CC. ; Rev. J. Power, St. Mary's, 
Clonmel. Amongst the members of the corporate body 
present were — J. E. Feehan, Esq., Mayor of Waterford ; 



S92 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Aldermen Murphy, Kenny, Phelan, Ryan, Town Coun- 
cillors Blake, M.P., Waterford ; T. Murphy, T. O'Reilly, 
J. O'Dwyer, C. Redmond, D. Keogh, A. Carrigan, J. 
Power, J. P. ; Owen Carroll, J. P. ; L. Freeman, P. Cox, 
M. Devereux, P. Reilly, Ivory, &g. 

Placards had been posted on Monday evening, announ- 
cing that his Eminence would enter the city at two o'clock 
from Aylwardstown, the residence of Mr. Strange, and 
long before that hour the streets through which he was 
expected to pass were thronged with people of all classes. 
Large numbers proceeded on cars and on foot along the 
road to Aylwardstown, for the purpose of conducting his 
Eminence into the city. He was met by them a couple 
of miles outside Waterford, when, after greeting him with 
hearty cheers, they formed a procession, composed of 
members of the several trades of the city bearing banners, 
and of the people generally, carrying quite a forest of 
green boughs, and preceded by a band of music. Al- 
though, as has been stated, it was announced that his 
Eminence would arrive at two o'clock, it was twenty min- 
utes to five before the cheers of those who accompanied 
him had announced to those who had been waiting for 
hours on the bridge and on the quays that he was coming. 
His Eminence was seated in the carriage of the Mayor, 
and was accompanied by that gentleman and the Very 
Rev. Dean Burke. The Cardinal was met near the city 
by a considerable number of the clergy of the district and 
by the leading citizens. The procession proceeded slowly 
across the bridge, amidst the cheers of the large concourse 
of people there assembled. All the ships in the river had 
their flags flying, and as the procession moved along, 
gathering additional numbers at every street, the scene, 
especially along the quay, was very animated. 

All Waterford, it might be said, took part in giving to 
his Eminence the welcome which was to be expected from 
the inhabitants of a city claiming to be the birthplace of 
his parents. Across the quay there stretched a triumphal 
arch, composed of flowers and evergreens. His Eminence 
proceeded directly to the two convents of the city, where 
he remained for about an hour and a half, and then 



WATERPORD. 293 

repaired to the Town Hall, which was tastefully decorated 
with evergreens, and where the banquet was to take 
place. In one of the rooms of this building a large num- 
ber of ladies and gentlemen were assembled to witness the 
presentation of an address to his Eminence from the 
Catholic clergy and laity of Waterford. Amongst those 
present were — W. Lambart, Esq., Carnagh ; Alderman 
Sir B. Morris, D.L., J.P. ; Rev. Mr. Cantwell, P.P., Tra- 
more ; Alderman S. Phelan ; Rev. Mr. M'Donald ; Rev. 
Mr. Baldwin, P.P., St. Mary's, Clonmel ; Alderman 
Carroll, J.P. ; Alderman Hackett, Clonmel ; Alderman 
Byrne, Clonmel ; Rev. Mr. Magner, O.S.F. ; R. Feehan, 
Esq., Carrick-on-Suir ; Rev. F. Day, O.S.A., New Ross ; 
Rev. J. Tobin, P.P., Mullinavat ; Rev. J. Phelan, P.P., 
Tullow; Rev. Mr. Phelan, C.C., SS. Peter and Paul's, 
Clonmel ; Rev. Mr. Power, O.S.F. ; Rev. Mr. Delany ; 
John Hudson, Esq. ; C. Redmond, Esq., T.C. ; Richard 
Mooney, Esq., Tramore ; A. P. Maher, Esq., Michael 
O'Shea, Esq. ; T. O'Reilly, T.C. ; Rev. Mr. M'Keon, 
C.C. ; Thomas Condon, Esq. ; A. Cadogan, Esq. ; P. 
Manning, &c. 

The Cardinal, on his arrival at the Town Hall, was re- 
ceived with cheers by the concourse of people assembled 
in the space fronting the building. His Eminence having 
been conducted to the room already referred to by the 
Mayor, Rev. Mr. Kent, P.P., Mr. Blake, M.P., &c., the 
following address was read by his worship, who wore the 
civic gown and chain : — 

May it please your Eminence — We, the Catholic 
clergy and people of the city of Waterford, approach 
your Eminence with feelings of reverence and admiration, 
and on this happy day, when, after years of absence, con- 
flict, and triumph, you revisit this city — which was the 
home of your youth — it is for us a proud duty to assem- 
ble here and offer you our heartiest welcome. Your in- 
timate connection with that Holy See which is the rock 
of the Church, the seat of truth, the centre of unity, and 
the source of all spiritual power, calls for our prompt and 
loving recognition, and you will, we are convinced, be 
gratified to hear that our attachment to the chair of St. 
25* 



294 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

Peter is firm and inflexible. The solid piety, exalted wis- 
dom, and intellectual prowess which constitute the fame 
Siud prestige of the Sacred College, we mark and honor 
in your person, for we know how strong and ardent are 
your faith and charity, while your genius and acquire- 
ments have given lustre to the Church, and won, even 
from enmity, a reluctant but unqualified tribute. In ad- 
dition, however, to the profound sentiments of respect with 
which your character and surpassing merits inspire us, the 
important services you have rendered to religion, and the 
consummate ability and unflinching courage which you 
displayed at a trying but glorious period of your history, 
command all our admiration and gratitude. Bigotry and 
faction combined their strength and malice to assail you, 
but calmly and fearlessly you encountered and defeated 
their unscrupulous but not unnatural nor unfrequent 
alliance. During that struggle our sympathies and prayers 
were with your Eminence, and now when the tempest has 
subsided, we congratulate and exult with you whose heart 
never failed, even under circumstances that were seem- 
ingly the most adverse. After centuries of silence and 
desolation, to you was committed the work of reconstruct- 
ing an old and ruined Church,, of reviving its saving in- 
fluence and long obscured glory ; and your presence here, 
and the sense we have of what you have already done, 
vividly recall to our minds the name and memory of that 
illustrious saint who preached and died at Canterbury. 
Rome, which developed by her teaching your unrivalled 
powers, which fortified you with her graces, and gave you 
a place among her spiritual princes, loves and confides in 
you. England, which owes you much, and which, with 
the Divine blessing, will be more largely your debtor, 
eagerly watches the course of your luminous career, and 
Ireland gives you the greeting and blessing of a mother. 
Since you touched her soil a fine spirit of exultation per- 
vades her people, which proves how indomitable is their 
devotion to the Church, and how strong their aflection for 
those who arm and conquer in its defence. Animated by 
that spirit we come to express our reverence and gratitude, 
and we earnestly hope and pray that He who has conferred 



WATERFORD. 295 

on you sucli rare and precious gifts may continue to you 
His grace and protection, making your virtues and learn- 
ing serve to illustrate and extend His religion, and that 
when the arduous task assigned you shall have been ac- 
complished, your faith and labors here may be rewarded 
by the possession of Himself in Heaven. 

His Eminence, in reply, said — 

My Lord Mayor and gentlemen^ you will, I am 
sure, allow me to make but a very brief reply to 
this most gratifying address. Probably, in the 
course of this evening, there may be some opportu- 
nity of touching upon topics on which I shall be more 
at home, than in replying to an address containing 
sentiments which I feel exceed my merits. That I 
should at any period of my life have remained faith- 
ful to the duty imposed upon me, is simply what 
any member of the Church would have felt it an 
honor to have an opportunity of doing. Having 
the most implicit confidence in the ultimate success 
of any thing which the Church directs, I have, in 
any thing I have done, shown not courage, but sim- 
ple reliance on the promise, which assured me and 
every member of the Catholic Church in Ireland, 
that their faith is invincible and their Church per- 
petual. This is all. As to the kind allusions that 
have been made to my exertions otherwise during 
my career in promoting the interests of the Church, 
that Church of which I glory to be a member, how- 
ever humble, I have merely discharged an ordinary 
duty. I feel almost afraid that the kindness and 
sympathy that have been shown to me since I came 



296 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

to Ireland, may come into conflict Avith the natural 
wish to reserve whatever reward one may expect 
for another and a better sphere. However, it pleases 
God to give vis some consolations here on earth ; 
and I feel that in the course of my life I have never 
experienced greater pleasure and happiness than I 
have since I came amongst this warm-hearted 
people, to whom I am so closely allied that I may 
claim to belong to them. The happiness which I 
have thus experienced is a most gratifying remu- 
neration for any little inflictions or annoyance I may 
have encountered in the discharge of my duty. I 
will not allude at present to topics which naturally 
suggest themselves to me on my visit to this city, 
and I will content myself with thanking the clergy 
and laity of Waterford, who have concurred in pre- 
senting this address, and by expressing a hope that 
the city may be as prosperous as it deserves to be, 
and that it may partake not only of temporal bless- 
ings, but also of those spiritual ones, without which 
there can be no true happiness. 

During the delivery of the address and the reply the 
Eev. Mr. Kent, P.P., Waterford, and the Yery Rev. Dr. 
Burke, P.P., V.G., SS. Peter and Paul's, Clonmel, stood 
at either side of his Eminence. 

THE BANQUET. 

After the ceremony of presenting the address had been 
gone through, his Eminence was conducted to the board 
room, where the banquet was laid. Lines of tables ex- 
tended down the room, and at the head of the apartment, 



THE BANQUET. 297 

and at right angles with these tables, was placed a raised 
table, covered with red cloth, at which the principal 
guests sat. Over two hundred sat down to dinner. The 
chair was occupied by the Right Worshipful the Mayor 
of Waterford, and on his right sat his Eminence Cardinal 
Wiseman, Very Rev. Dr. Burke, P.P., Y.G., Clonmel; 
Rev. Mr. Kent, P.P., Waterford ; Rev. Mr. Burke, Mr. 
Strange, Rev. Mr. English, CO., Waterford ; Mr. Gal- 
way, Alderman Carroll, Rev. Mr. O'Donnell, P.P., 
Passage ; Alderman Meagher, Professor Sullivan, Catholic 
University. On the left of his Worship were seated Mr. 
Blake, M.P. ; Mr. Wiseman, Rev. Mr. Cantwell, P.P., 
Tramore ; Mr. O'Neill Power, Snow Hill ; Rev. Mr. Bald- 
win, P.P., Saint Mary's, Clonmel; Thomas F. Strange, 
Captain Anthony, John Power, Esq., J. P., Waterford. 

A large gallery which overlooked the apartment was 
filled with ladies. In this gallery was stationed a band, 
which played a variety of airs during the evening. 

The banquet being concluded, and thanks having been 
offered by the Rev. Mr. Kent, 

His Worship the Mayor rose to propose the first toast. 
He said that was not a political banquet. It was one from 
the Catholic clergy and people of Waterford to a Prince 
of the Church. He need not tell those present that they 
regarded the Pope as Christ's Yicar on earth, and inas- 
much as spiritual and heavenly things were not worldly, 
they placed the spiritual matters before the worldly. For 
more than 1,400 years the Irish Church had been in con- 
nection with and obedient to the See of Rome. To pre- 
serve that connection and allegiance what did not Ireland 
do ? Did not their ancestors, in maintaining the Pope 
and denying the supremacy of temporal sovereigns in 
spiritual matters, lose their lives, their liberties, and their 
fortunes ? — and if they were called upon to do as their 
ancestors had done, would they not cheerfully do it ? 
Did they not think he had offered good and solid reasons 
for giving the Pope's health ? But the spiritual allegiance 
which they owed him as the representative of God upon 
earth did not in the least detract from that loyalty which 
they owed to the crown. It was not necessary that he 



298 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

should dwell on the virtues, the talents, and the various 
merits of the present Pontiff, and he would, therefore, 
without further preface, give them — 

" The health of the Pope." 

The toast having been drunk with all honors. 

The Mayor again rose and said, — Having disposed of 
the Church, they now came to the state. Ireland had 
been ever remarkable for loyalty, even to the most faith- 
less and good-for-nothing sovereigns, so that it was a 
pleasure to them — loyal from principle, from feeling, and 
religion — to have a sovereign whose health they could 
drink with affection and admiration. He would give 
them — 

" The health of the Queen." 

The toast having been duly honored, and the other 
usual loyal toasts having been also drunk. 

The Mayor rose and said, they had now come to the 
toast of the night, and he only regretted that it was not 
to be proposed by somebody who could do it justice. If 
he were to go into the life and history of their illustrious 
guest, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, he would 
be going into the history of the progress and reconstruc- 
tion of the Catholic Church in England. In all times 
Providence had raised up in every country great men for 
His own great works. He firmly and sincerely believed 
that Providence in furthering His great design of the 
reconstruction of the Catholic hierarchy in England, which 
had been destroyed in the reigns of Henry YIII. and 
Elizabeth, raised up their illustrious guest for the pur- 
pose. And let them just imagine what a work that was, 
and the country in which it was done. All of them might 
not have lived as he had done for years in England, and 
if they had, they would know the discouragement that 
should meet a Catholic ecclesiastic in such a country. 
But to a man like their illustrious guest, animated by the 
one thouglit and feeling of devotion to God and His 
Church, every labor was light — no discouragement, no 
defection, on the part of those who should stand by him 
— no opposition from those from whom he expected it — 
could discourage him. Every one of them was, perhaps, 



THE BANQUET. 299 

better acquainted with the works of Cardinal Wiseman 
than he was, and they could, as an enlightened Catholic 
assembly, appreciate the services of such a Prince of the 
Church. The circumstance, however, at wliich as Catho- 
lics they felt most annoyed in connection with the Cardi- 
nal was the attempt to crush him and expel liim from 
England at the time of the passing of the ecclesiastical 
titles' bill. The Times, which reflected public opinion in 
England at the time, said that in three days Cardinal 
Wiseman should fly from London. But it judged from 
mere worldly considerations — the only motives, he re- 
gretted to say, wliich, generally speaking, influenced the 
English people. But all the thunder of the Times, all 
the denunciations of Lord John Russell were unheeded 
by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. It was not 
necessary that he should dilate upon the great merits and 
the high character of their illustrious guest. Catholics 
had been accused of being enemies of enlightenment — of 
education. But let those who said so look at their illus- 
trious guest, and say, did he ever put forward a proposi- 
tion in science or a problem in learning that had been 
disputed ? The Cardinal had been received with joy in 
every part of Ireland, and should he not be received with 
double enthusiasm in the city of his ancestors ? Indeed, 
he thought they might go so far as to claim the Cardinal 
as one of themselves. He would propose to them the 
liealth of their distinguished guest, " the Cardinal Arcli- 
bisliop of Westminster." 

The toast was drunk amidst loud cheers. 

His Eminence, who on rising to respond was received 
with enthusiastic applause, said — 

Although, when I accepted your kind invitation 
to be your guest, I knew that I should have to ad- 
dress you on a variety of topics, some of which 
might be trying to my feelings, I did not foresee 
those which your worthy chief magistrate has se- 
lected, and which call for a reply from me. But at 



300 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

any rate the manner in which you have manifested 
your feeUngs towards me has robbed my memory 
of any thing I may have prepared^ and made it im- 
possible for me to address you in a formal speech. 
You must, therefore, be content with receiving the 
simple expression of my gratitude, with a few ob- 
servations relative to the topics on which the Mayor 
has so kindly touched. He has, indeed, suggested 
to me one on which it is easy to speak, because it 
exempts me from observations of a personal nature. 
I feel that what relates to our early history, our ori- 
gin, the place of our birth, can be only contem- 
plated as a dispensation of Providence ; that it is a 
matter not for boast, but for thankfulness. And 
even other ^occurrences in life, which affect our 
course, and on which we may look back with some al- 
lowable gratification, ought only to be motives for a 
higher degree of that same gratitude, and at the 
same time suggestive of a higher dealing than we 
might otherwise recognize. Such I take to be the 
circumstance to which your excellent Mayor has 
alluded of my ecclesiastical position, which, if noth- 
ing else, at least has given you a motive to do for 
me that which otherwise I could not have deserved. 
I have no hesitation in accepting whatever is done 
in consideration of that position or rank (which 
may be purely accidental), because I claim no merit 
in it ; but, at the same time, I feel I have a claim 
distinct from that of any other person in the same 
position. I yield most willingly to every colleague 



THE BANQUET. SOI 

of mine in the Sacred College in every thing enti- 
tling him to respect. There are men amongst that 
august body to whom I look up with more than 
reverence — with positive veneration ; and I know 
not one of them who has not the highest title to 
the love and regard of all who know them. But 
there is one claim which I can yield to none. There 
is no other in that venerable and eminent assembly 
— however distinguished for great qualities — who 
can stand amongst you claiming the sympathy of a 
fellow-citizen. On that ground I feel I stand alone. 
In addition, it is still more gratifying, remembering 
how many ages have passed over, since one placed 
in my position in the Church has visited this island, 
to think that it is one connected with this city. The 
tie betw^een myself and Waterford is not one of 
yesterday ; for when I look around the room, I can 
find few countenances which lead me back to the 
period w^hen I first knew it, or recall the circum- 
stances under which I came. I should not think 
the mere fact of my family being united by prox- 
imity to the city a subject worth while entering 
on ] all I know is, that from her to whom I owe my 
education (as I had the misfortune to lose my father 
in infancy) ; from her whose warmest recollections 
and most affectionate feelings Avere connected with 
this city, and with the neighboring place where she 
was born, I remember to have heard histories w^hich 
remain engraved on my memory, that tell me what 
my ancestors had to endure to preserve the faith 
26 



302 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

— how they shared in the confiscations and spolia- 
tions of property, which were the heirlooms of 
every Catholic in those days. Friends of mine since 
then have thought it kindness to find in the Rec- 
ord Office in Dublin the original decrees of confis- 
cation and spoliation of the property my ancestors 
possessed here ; but all this has been nothing com- 
pared to the tales she told me of the secret, unseen 
sacrifices, by which some of her ancestors preserved 
the faith to themselves and their children. 

But there is another tie which I must not forget, 
because it more immediately connected me with 
this city. It has been remarked that there are two 
compound words which speak most feelingly to the 
affections. One we have endeavored to introduce 
from a kindred tongue, but it has too much of 
foreign composition to take root in our language. 
This is the word "fatherland," the word which 
speaks to the patriotic hearts of the natives of Ger- 
many. There is a word, however, nearly allied to 
it in form, which is purely English, and which noth- 
ing will eradicate from our language, and it is our 
" mother-tongue." Next to receiving breath, the 
gift of speech is of the utmost importance to our 
well-being. It is too true that in many evil ways 
our thoughts themselves are guided and directed 
by our words ; but it is true no less that they are 
so in the highest and best sense ; and every lan- 
guage carries with it the forms of thought, and 
even the cast of character which belongs to the 



TPIE BANQUET. BOS 

people that speak it. When we make the tongue 
of any country our own, it becomes the " mother " 
of our whole future life. It may not be uninter- 
esting to you who have received me so much as a 
friend, to know that Waterford was the first city in 
the British empire with which I became acquainted 
in the earliest portion of my life. 

I arrived in England at the age of from six to 
seven years, but I spent but a short period in Lon- 
don ; then came directly here. I arrived in this 
neighborhood, at Aylwardstown, without being 
able to form a sentence, or perhaps to speak ten 
words in the language in which I now address you. 
But I was not left long in the country. I was put 
into a boarding school in Waterford, and it was 
there I learned for the first time, as completely as 
a child could learn it, the language in which I am 
now speaking. It has become my "mother- 
tongue," and this I owe entirely to this city. This 
is a strong tie of connection, and I feel deeply 
grateful that it was established. For if Providence 
had not sent me from the country of my adoption, 
which my parents had made their home, in conse- 
quence of those wars of invasion which for a time 
made Spain no longer habitable, and if I had not 
then been brought hither, I cannot tell what might 
have been my course. It so pleased Providence, 
however, that here I made myself acquainted with 
the language which naturally made England the 
seat of my labors, and of any little usefulness of 



304 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

whicli I may have been the instrument in the cause 
of religion and the Church. I consider that this my 
connection with Waterford is more intimate than 
its being the neighboring city of my ancestors. 

Your Mayor has been kind enough to allude, 
among other topics, to the restoration of the hier- 
archy in England. I must disclaim any merit in 
the great measure itself. It was the spontaneous 
act of the present Pontiff He announced his in- 
tention of my returning to England, when I had 
not in the least expected it, with the dignity of 
Archbishop, for the purpose of reconstructing the 
hierarchy ; but I must give to him the complete 
and undivided glory of the act which, I believe, will 
have its place amongst the greatest achievements 
of one of the greatest pontificates. Once charged 
with carrying out that mission, and the more 
strengthened in mind because it was not my work, 
it would not only have been folly, but almost im- 
piety for me to have doubted of its success, or 
wavered, or felt any anxiety about it. Perhaps I 
have never mentioned before in public, that when 
it pleased the Holy Father to commit to me the 
carrying out of that measure, before I left Kome I 
fixed the day on which I should take solemn pos- 
session of my church. It was on Sunday, the 8th 
of December. I announced the day before I 
reached England ; but when I arrived there, I was 
requested by many to change my plan, and not to 
appear and officiate in the church. I received 



THE BANQUET. 305 

letters announcing that the moment I entered the 
pulpit a pistol would put an end to my course. I 
was warned even by Catholics, and entreated not 
to appear ; and I was told there was a design to 
•hustle myself and those who might attend on me, 
and to make away with me. Now, I must say I 
never for one instant thought of altering my plan. 
With the grace of God, every thing was done as 
originally designed ; the church was never more 
orderly, and the functions were performed with that 
peace and tranquillity which have ever since pre- 
vailed. I claim nothing but the most complete 
and unshakable confidence in every thing that is 
done by the Church, in promoting a great interest. 
The Mayor has kindly alluded to the marked proofs 
of good will which have cheered me in every place 
that I have visited. I must say that I have expe- 
rienced unbounded pleasure at witnessing, in all 
parts of this country, such deeply-rooted and cer- 
tainly ineradicable attachment to the faith. I 
should reproach myself Avith foolish vanity if I at- 
tributed these demonstrations to personal feelings 
for myself It is the manner in which the simple 
and warm-hearted people of Ireland love to demon- 
strate that whatever they may lose or gain — 
however circumstances may change — their fidelity 
to the Church, their unshaken devotion and firm 
adhesion to the Church of St. Peter can never be 
disturbed. I read in them a lesson rare in the 
world's history, which shows me how this people, 
26 * 



306 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

who for centuries have been strugglmg agamst 
every thing that could shake their faith, have come 
forth from every trial as secure in the possession 
of that faith as they could have been had they 
been prosperous, and in a worldly sense, a favored 
people ; indeed, more so, for people who have re- 
ceived worldly benefits have seldom shown that 
gratitude for them which they owe. How any one 
with a spark of common sense can imagine that the 
distribution of a few temporal favors, by the expen- 
diture, lavish though it may be, of earthly gold and 
silver, by the conquest of a few miserable people, 
who abandon them the moment they have received 
a mouthful of bread ; how, I say, any sensible man, 
any one with ordinary intellect, can imagine that 
by these means the slightest inroad can be made 
on the faith of the nation, or in the least way en- 
feeble it, I can only account for, by supposing that 
religious blindness, which, more than any other 
cause, is capable of producing wild illusions. 

Before I sit down, let me say that in the progress 
which I have made through different parts of Ire- 
land, I have been filled with astonishment at seeing 
what has been done every where for the advance- 
ment of religion. The fact that what has been 
accomplished has been performed after years of pes- 
tilence, famine, and emigration, is another proof that 
faith supplies every want, and that the vividness of 
that faith was not impaired, but, on the contrary, 
rather increased by the sufferings of the people, who 



THE BANQUET. 807 

have come forth from their trials in a manner more 
than noble — positively heroic. The stability, du- 
rability, solidity of every thing that is done, exceeds 
any thing that I could have anticipated. Every 
thing seems to portend a future more prosperous 
than Ireland has experienced for centuries. The 
material condition of the people is immensely im- 
proved. They have become more attached to 
habits of devoted industry in the cultivation of the 
soil at home, instead of seeking chance occupation 
abroad. Every thing speaks of greater intelligence, 
greater desire for improvement, and at the same 
time there is not the least diminution of religious 
and moral feeling. The past will belong very soon 
to history. Of the present generation many will 
not be able to realize an idea of the condition to 
which this beautiful country had been reduced, by 
(I will not speak as strongly as I might) the most 
mistaken policy. I am sure you will all unite in 
advancing this prosperity of your country. Though 
the interval since my last visit has been long, I feel 
convinced that if it were another time much shorter 
I should still easily see great changes and improve- 
ments. I congratulate all who have taken an 
interest in the welfare of this city, and have la- 
bored so successfully for it, and I am sure that all 
will do their utmost to secure the well-being and 
jidvancement of its inhabitants. The clergy will 
never be behindhand in developing their spiritual 
resources in proportion to the increasing prosperity 



308 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of the country, and clergy and laity will always go 
hand-in-hand in promoting the true interests of that 
country which is dear to them both. 

His Eminence resumed his seat amid loud and pro- 
tracted cheers. 

The Mayor then rose, and said the next toast on the 
list was, " The Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, and the 
clergy of the diocese." He was sure, he said, that their 
venerated bishop would feel most acutely at being absent 
that evening ; but there was no possibility of communi- 
cating with him in England, in sufficient time, the fact 
tliat his Eminence had accepted the invitation to the ban- 
quet. He would give them the toast, associating with it 
the name of the Rev. Mr. Kent. 

The toast was duly honored. 

The Rev. Mr. Kent, in responding, said that he was 
sure his lordship would much regret his absence that 
evening ; but he was sure he was only carrying out the 
wishes of his lordship in doing honor to their illustrious 
guest, in doing which they were doing nothing more tlian 
making a public profession of their faith and their attach- 
ment to the chair of Peter. 

The Mayor then gave the toast of ^' the Catholic Hier- 
archy of Ireland." 

The Very Rev. Dr. Burke, P.P., Y.Gr., responded in an 
eloquent speech. Reviewing the history of the hierarchy, 
he said, the conclusion he came to was, that there could 
not be found a hierarchy more remarkable for fidelity, 
great learning, fervent piety, and genuine patriotism than 
the hierarchy of Ireland. The toast was associated with 
the name of the Archbishop of Cashel, who, he was able 
to say, was a most eminent prelate, and that a more 
useful and learned member of the hierarchy it would 
be difficult to find. He was sure that the same fidelity 
which characterized the hierarchy in ages gone by, would, 
if circumstances arose, distinguish the hierarchy of th^" 
present day. 

His Eminence then rose, and proposed the health of his 



THE BANQUET. 309 

Worship the Mayor, with whose merits he said they were 
all well acquainted, and who, he was sure, deserved to be 
honored and respected as he was by the citizens. 

Tlie toast having been drunk. 

His Worship briefly returned thanks, expressing his 
desire to promote the prosperity of the city of Waterford. 

The Mayor then proposed '' the Catholic University of 
Ireland." No country of the extent of Ireland, he said, 
should be without a national university, and they could 
not have such a university in that country unless it was a 
Catholic one. It was a great matter that they had now a 
college to which they could send their children without 
danger to their faith. 

The toast was duly honored. 

Professor Sullivan, of the Catholic University, returned 
thanks. It was a curious coincidence, he said, that at a 
meeting to do honor to an illustrious prince of the Churcli, 
and a distinguished scholar, the toast of the Catholic 
University should for the first time have been proposed in 
Ireland. There was a point connected with the Catholic 
University to which he wished to allude. The origin of it 
had been attributed to the circumstance that other col- 
leges had sprung up, but the fact was that it was estab- 
lished as an inevitable necessity in the country, no matter 
how many colleges v/ere established, for five millions of 
people could not remain in receipt of the intellectual out- 
door relief which other colleges afforded them. He con- 
sidered the time was come when, as a matter of right, tlie 
people of this country should demand that recognition of 
its university, which would so much contribute to its 
success, and to the development of the intellect of the 
country. 

The Mayor then gave the toast of " the Catholic mem- 
ber for Waterford, Mr. Blake," who, he said, had always 
taken the greatest interest in Catholic matters. 

Mr. Blake, M.P., responded, after which the company 
separated. 

His Eminence then drove off to Aylwardstown, followed 
for some distance by a large crowd, who cheered him 
loudly. 



310 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 



BAGNALSTOWN. 

His Eminence, upon arriving in Bagnalstown, upon his 
way to Dublin, was presented with the following address 
from the Catholic inhabitants of that place : — 

May it please your Eminence, — "We, the Catholic 
inhabitants of Bagnalstown, gladly seize, even in this 
hurried manner, the opportunity of your passing the 
precincts of our town, to ask permission to tender to your 
Eminence the homage of our profound respect and of our 
Tinbounded veneration for your exalted station and illus- 
trious character. In that exalted station we recognize a 
prince of the Church, a successor of the apostles ; in your 
illustrious character we reverence the deep erudition of 
the divine, we venerate the virtues of the Christian, we 
acknowledge the wisdom of the philosopher, and we ad- 
mire the varied learning of the accomplished scholar. By 
the judicious exercise of these gifts, your Eminence has 
powerfully assisted in restoring science to its legitimate 
purpose of displaying to the human mind, in unison with 
the truth of revelation, the wonderful works of our Crea- 
tor. Under the auspices of your Eminence, philosophy 
has ceased to be a mere mirage to delude the parched 
wayfarer ; it is now a calm and veritable lake, in which, 
while slaking his thirst, he can behold the image of heaven 
reflected in its placid waters. Did time permit, we might 
dilate at greater length on this glorious theme ; but, 
should it please Providence that your Eminence may soon 
revisit this island to renew your mission of charity and 
peace, we liope to have the great gratification of a longer 
sojourn of your Eminence amongst us, and in the church 
which we are now engaged in enlarging and embellishing 
for the more suitable celebration of divine worsliip, to 
enjoy the happiness and consolation of receiving from the 
hands of your Eminence, for our temple and for our- 
selves, the apostolical benediction. 

His Eminence, who spoke from the carriage, said lie 



ST. Andrew's church, westland row. 311 

was sorry lio had not time to say more than simply to 
thank them, and to express his satisfaction that they had 
been so good as to manifest those feehngs of good-will 
towards him, because it was a pledge of their fidelity to 
their religion. He thanked them very sincerely ; and he 
prayed Almighty God to bless them all. His Eminence 
took his departure amid loud cheers. 

The deputation consisted of Rev. P. Morrin, P.P. ; 
John Magrath, John J. Murphy, Rochford Casey, and 
John Kehoe, Esqrs. 



DUBLIIf. 

ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 

PROSELYTISM. 

Thursday morning his Eminence the Cardinal Arch- 
bisliop of Westminster gave another convincing proof of 
his active benevolence and sympathy with the children of 
the poor. The almost unceasing toil which he had to 
endure, the long journeys, the physical labor and mental 
exertion necessary for the accomplishment of all he had 
been called upon to perform since his arrival in Ireland, 
had not damped the ardor of his charity or his zeal for 
the promotion of religion and charity. Though only just 
arrived from the south of Ireland, he came willingly for- 
ward this morniiig, at the call of the lowly and the 
forsaken, to plead their cause, and to tell the thousands 
who heard him that the cause of the poor was the cause 
of God. In the spirit of true humility, he deemed no 
sacrifice of time, of zeal, of labor, or rest, too great for 
those whom Clirist had redeemed, and who stood in 
danger of being lost. The time fixed for the commence- 
ment of Mass, which his Eminence celebrated, was half 
past eight o'clock ; but for an hour before, the transepts 
and clioir of the spacious church were croweded to incon- 



312 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

venioiice by a vast assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, 
amongst whom were the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, and 
a large number of Protestants. Although admission to 
every part of the sacred edifice was by tickets, at eight 
o'clock mere standing room in any place within the walls 
was difficult of attainment. Crowds assembled in West- 
land Row, anxiously waiting for the arrival of his Emi- 
nence from the residence of his Grace the Archbishop, 
where he had slept the previous night. The high altar 
was brilliantly lit up with wax lights, interspersed with 
flowers, and the sanctuary and altar steps were richly 
carpeted. At half past eight o'clock the cheering of the 
crowds in the street announced that his Eminence had 
arrived. A procession was formed, consisting of the con- 
fraternity of the church, wearing the robes of their order, 
about fifty boys in red soutans, and a large number of 
dignitaries and clergy, headed by the pastor of the par- 
ish, the Ven. Dean Meyler. The other clergy present 
were — the Rev. Canon Pope, Administrator, Cathedral 
Parish ; Rev. Dr. O'Connell, P.P. ; Rev. John Farrell, 
Rev. Dr. Spratt, Rev. Canon Lee, D.D. ; Rev. Mr. Mul- 
hall, Rev. Canon Lynch ; Rev. Mr. Byrne, Ballina ; Rev. 
Mr. Cullinan, Rev. Mr. Duff, &c. 

His Eminence, who was accompanied by the Rev. E. 
Lambert Clifford and the Rev. Mr. Burke, was received 
at the principal entrance by the Right Rev, Dr. Whelan, 
Lord Bishop of Bombay, and the Venerable the Dean, 
who conducted him in procession to the sanctuary, the 
organ playing the grand march from Handel's oratorio of 
Sampson. As his Eminence passed through the aisle and 
choir he gave his benediction to the vast kneeling con- 
gregation. On arriving at the foot of the altar, his Em- 
inence, who wore the scarlet soutan of a cardinal, re- 
mained for some time in silent prayer. Having assumed 
the sacramental vestments, he commenced the celebration 
of Mass, assisted by the Rev. E. L. Clifford. 

After the gospel his Eminence turned to the congrega- 
tion and proceeded to deliver a beautiful and impressive 
discourse, which had reference to the efforts — but through 
the divine blessing the abortive efforts — of the enemies 



SERMON IN ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 313 

of religion, to proselytize tlic poor of this country, and 
also to the labors of various counteracting Catholic so- 
cieties, including the Catholic Dormitory Society, to de- 
feat the machinations of those wicked men. He glanced 
at the persecutions which it had been the lot of the 
Church to endure in this country for several centuries, 
and stated — 

That, however specious might be the professions 
which Protestantism put forward for the purpose 
of misleading those whom it sought to make vic- 
tims, yet these proselytizing agents were actuated 
by the same spirit wdiich had animated Protestant- 
ism during three centuries of persecution ; for it 
w^as by Protestantism^ and on its account, the 
Catholic people of this country had been subjected 
to the cruelty of penal restrictions and social suf- 
fering. Protestantism had never been the friend 
of the people ; it had always been most inimical to 
them, and the present deceitful guise which it put 
on w^as only adopted to effect purposes suggested 
by the most selfish considerations, and not springing 
from any love of religioUj or desire for the salvar 
tion of those upon whom it sought to practise its 
arts. The proselytizers principally directed their 
efforts against helpless and poverty-stricken chil- 
dren, and the poorest of the poor Catholic pop- 
ulation, whom they hoped by their offerings of 
temporal assistance in their need and misery to 
seduce from their best treasure, their holy faith. 

His Eminence impressed upon the congregation, and 
upon all Catholics throughout the country, the immense 

27 



314 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

importance of discharging the solemn duty of aiding and 
assisting in every way that lay in their power the praise- 
worthy exertions of those who sought to rescue and pro- 
tect these little ones from the greatest affliction that could 
possibly befall them — the loss of their religion. Dwelling 
further on this point, his Eminence said — 

That, when children were taken away from the 
hands of their enemies, they should be maintained, 
supported, and protected till the struggle was over, 
and all danger at an end. Timely assistance was 
of the very greatest importance. A little aid 
promptly given to counteract the profusion of 
means put in operation by the other side might 
be the means of snatching many souls from perdi- 
tion. Could there be any greater charity than 
this, or which more united the soul of man with 
God ? or could there be destitution more profound, 
or in which the soul was more involved with, the 
body, than that which it was the aim of the Cath- 
olic Dormitory to relieve ? 

The Cathohc Dormitory Society w^as a useful 
means of protecting some little ones from the dan- 
gers that beset them. And was it not an honor to 
that parish to have originated such an institution ? 
Did it not call for cooperation in its good work 
upon all Avho belonged to the parish ? nay, did its 
.claim not extend far beyond the parish, and solicit 
in the strongest manner the succor, for- the little 
ones of Christ, of- all, in every part of the city and 
of the whole country, who had at heart the rescu- 
ing of souls from the evil one ? Ireland had under- 



SERMON IN ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 315 

gone many trials, nearly every one of them for the 
faith ; it had to encounter immense efforts of 
power, wealth, influence, ingenuity, and cunning, 
made perseveringly for the purpose of recruiting 
the ranks of Protestantism, by the snatching up 
or purchasing of Catholic children ; these unholy 
efforts had of late been renewed, and constituted 
Avhat he believed would be the last trial Ireland 
would have to endure, from which she would come 
as scathless and triumphant as from the much 
more desperate assaults of former times, when her 
children had no earthly means to fall back upon 
for their defence, nothing but an unshaken confi- 
dence in God and His all-powerful protection. A 
brighter day had come, and even the power of the 
traffickers in souls was neutralized by the abun- 
dance with which God had blessed the land, and 
put the poor beyond temptation. The temporary 
evils of which he was speaking were passing away, 
and they would have to continue their labors only 
for a time to defeat the iniquitous attempts to 
disturb the faith which had been so closely and 
lovingly held by the people for long centuries — 
the faith which St. Patrick planted, and which no 
earthly power would ever be able to root out. 

Having enlarged forcibly upon this branch of his dis- 
course, his Eminence proceeded to speak of the relation 
ill which Protestanism had heretofore and now stood to 
the people of this country, and in doing so said : — 

What conceivable claim or inducement could 



816 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

Protestantism hold out to the CathoHcs of Ireland ? 
Certamly not truth of doctrine, nor sympathy with 
those whom its agents approached like wolves in 
sheep's clothing, seeking whom they might devour. 
Of all countries in the world Ireland was the last 
in which Protestantism should dare profess an 
interest in the spiritual or temporal welfare of the 
people ; and if it did so now it was for the most 
selfish and wicked of purposes. What had Prot- 
estantism ever done for Ireland ? What single 
blessing had it ever broLight upon the country ? 
What happiness had it diffused amongst the peo- 
ple ? Had it ever consoled and cherished the 
poor ? »No, but quite the contrary. It would be 
too long and painful a recital to tell all that it had 
done to oppress, to traduce, and destroy. The 
people and their faith, it was now palpable, could 
not be rooted out of this land, and a different 
system was pursued, and the wolf had put on the 
sheep's clothing. Protestantism had been the di- 
rect instrument by which the sufferings of poverty 
had been aggravated and insulted ; and it was 
avowedly in the name of Protestantism, and for 
its maintenance, contrary to the national will, that 
a dreadful and ingenious system of persecution had 
been organized and relentlessly carried out. When 
the Catholics of Ireland looked back over the dark 
history of the last three hundred years, must they 
not at once ask, why w^as it, if Protestantism was 
so beneficent as it would fain represent itself now, 



SERMON IN ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 317 

that it had done nothing during that dreary period 
to reHeve the deepest distress, to mitigate cruel 
sufferings ? Why did it not, while the people were 
trodden under foot during those three hundred 
years, stretch out its hand to succor and console ? 
Why did it refrain from doing so till a new order 
of things arose, and then, in a late time of famine 
and pestilence, come, for the purpose of its own 
sustainment, to make a time of trial also a time of 
temptation, by holding out bread to the starving, 
but only as the price of perversion ? Must they 
not look at least with suspicion upon men who 
never came imtil they thought the opportunity a 
favorable one for seducing poor creatures in their 
misery from their faith ? Their object was plainly 
a wicked one. How different had been the mission 
of the Catholic Church ! Driven from every place, 
it followed the people to their lowly cabins, which 
became its strongholds, the fortresses of religion, 
impregnable to every assault. The priest had 
abided with the flock amid every danger, and 
cheered them by his holy words, and strengthened 
them by his ministrations. When Protestantism 
bore down heavily upon them, he was their com- 
forter ; he instructed the young, advised with the 
old, shared and sympathized in their sorrows, and 
was beside them in death to prepare them with the 
sacraments, and point to the eternal home of the just, 
where they might hope to obtain the reward of their 
virtue and devotion. The powerful ministrations 
27* 



818 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of the Catholic Church sustained not only the faith, 
but the patience and virtue, of the millions and 
millions who had passed over this land, condemned 
by their oppressors to do so in poverty and affliction. 
It was too late now for the proselytizer to come 
with his proffered aid, when no other course was 
open to him — when religion had regained her as- 
cendency — not the ascendency of power, but the 
ascendency of zeal, of constancy, of duty in every 
thing that related to God — of, in fact, that grand 
assertion and celebration of religion in its forms 
and practices so manifest in this city and through 
the whole breadth of Ireland. It was too late to 
come now to the people, when they had battled 
through their trials, and tell them to throw aside 
the staff which supported them along perilous paths 
— to pluck away the rudder which had steered 
them through so many tempest-beaten seas of trib- 
ulation — to rob them of that bread of life which 
nourished their fathers and gave them the endur- 
ance of martyrs, and was for themselves the bread 
of salvation. It was too late now to tell the faith- 
ful Catholics of Ireland to abandon the bark of 
Peter when its sails were magnificently unfurled 
to favoring breezes, and when it was sailing nobly 
across an ocean tranquil as compared with what 
had been its stormy state — when the sun was 
shining out, almost for the first time, after a long 
darkness, unrelieved only by the fire of that deep 
faith, hope, and charity, which had burned so 



SERMON IN ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 319 

brightly within them. Surely this was not the 
time to tell the people to quit that bark and plunge 
into the waves which were filled with ravenous and 
devouring creatures that followed the ship, ready 
to snatch in a moment any one so unfortunate as 
unwarily to place himself within their reach. 

His Eminence having spoken for a brief space upon tins 
point, adverted to the likeness of proselytizers entrapping 
children to wolves, who gathered around a fond mother 
clinging to her children, and seeking to tear from her 
those objects of her affection. 

These men came with biting tongues, tongues 
sharp as a sword ; they came reviling sacred things ; 
they came scoffing ; they came denouncing ; they 
came challenging; nay, they came blaspheming 
what they knew nought of These men came not 
wdth the pure power of sanctity, or with the dignity 
of exalted piety, or of that simple Christian learn- 
ing w^hich, without guile and without vain words, 
without endless repetition of the same thing, spoke 
wisely, and nobly, and effectively to all men. No, 
they came with words of wickedness ; they came 
with the appearance of godliness, but denying its 
power, denying the offering which God never ceased 
to make upon the altar for the salvation of mankind; 
denying the sacraments; deriding the mother of 
God, deriding the saints of God, and every thing 
that was sacred and holy. By such means did they 
seek to effect their purposes. He spoke not of in- 
dividuals ; he knew not any of them ; he never 
had to deal with any of them, but he had read their 



320 CARDINAL WISEx^IAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

writings; he saw them published on every side^ 
and he had the opportunity of observing that they 
followed like sharks in the wake of the Church, 
wherever she went on her mission of peace, endeav- 
oring, but vainly, to counteract that divine mission. 
They were the men who sought to scatter tares 
in the field where the good seed had been sown. 
It w^as not by such agents as these that God sent 
forth His truth to the world, or that His work would 
be done. No, it was a self-denying ministry, who 
from the beginning, blessed by God, went forth 
amongst their enemies as sheep amongst wolves, 
ready, if necessary, to lay down their lives in vin- 
dication of their holy religion. He entreated of 
them not to allow one step to be gained upon them, 
not to suffer a single little one to be numbered 
amongst the lost. These little ones were defence- 
less, and the Catholics of the parish, of the city, of 
Ireland, should assist them as far as they could, 
individually and collectively, by providing shelter 
for the little flock. Let each of them, if possible, 
become a shepherd, and take, at all events, one 
little lamb upon his shoulders, and bear it safely to 
the fold ; and if they did this the Great Shepherd 
vfould reward them. They could not do a greater 
service to God, or a greater benefit to His holy 
Church, or perform a more substantial work of 
mercy, than by counteracting and preventing, as 
much as possible, this miserable attempt at perver- 
sion of souls, redeemed by the blood of Jesus 



SERMON IN ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, WESTLAND ROW. 321 

Christ. For doing this their parish would receive 
additional blessings from God. He entreated of 
them to proceed in their noble work. This was the 
last time previous to his departure from Ireland 
that he should have the opportunity of addressing 
such a noble assemblage. He rejoiced that his last 
words in public on that occasion should have been 
in favor of a charity having such an object^ and in 
protest^ humble but earnest, against the infamous 
attempts made by these men to disturb the religious 
peace of the land. 

His Eminence concluded by stating that he would pro- 
ceed to offer up the adorable sacrifice of the Mass on be- 
half of the institution and its members, and all who as- 
sisted in the noble work, begging of God that he would 
increase their zeal, bless their labors, and bestow upon them 
temporal happiness here and everlasting glory hereafter. 

The Cardinal was then divested of a portion of his 
vestments, and knelt for some time in prayer at the foot 
of the altar. Upon rising, he was conducted through the 
sanctuary to the head of the nave, then round by the 
principal entrance to the southern aisle, blessing the peo- 
ple as he passed along, and into the presbytery, where 
a large party of the clergy and laity were assembled, on 
the invitation of the Very Rev. Dean, to meet his Eminence 
at breakfast. 

An address was presented from the society by a numer- 
ous deputation, who were admitted to his Eminence in 
the presbytery. He was attended by his chaplains, the 
Very Rev. Dean Meyler, P.P. ; Rev. Canon Lynch, &c., 
&G. The address, which was read by the chairman of the 
society, stated that they hailed his coming, in common 
with their fellow-countrymen, with joy and exultation. 
The address then gave a brief sketch of the causes which 
led to the formation of the society, and next of its useful 
labors, under the sanction of the Archbishop. His Emi- 
nence said — 



322 CARDINAL "Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

I thank you very sincerely for this address, and 
I can only express the gratification it has been to 
me to hear of so very beautiful and useful an insti- 
tution — an institution so practical, which has re- 
sults so immediate and certain, and has therefore 
probably been the means of saving a great number 
of souls which might have been lost. I would, 
therefore, say to you, persevere in your efforts, and 
by every means in your power increase rather than 
diminish the efficacy of your charity. The oppor- 
tunity which I have had this morning has been 
most gratifying to me, because, although it was a 
very feeble way of advocating the charity, still it 
was the only one that remained to me, the only 
opportunity that I had, and I embraced it with 
pleasure. I hope you w^ill put yourselves as a bar- 
rier against this miserable spirit of seduction and 
delusion w^hich is attempted in this country ; and 
you may depend upon this, that if it is crushed out 
in the capital, which is the centre from Avhich all 
good and all mischief flows, it will soon die away at 
the extremities. Deal with it as you would with a 
noxious plant ; if you root it up and eradicate it 
from the soil, the remote branches that spring from 
it, and infest distant corners of Ireland, will very 
soon die away. Money is the soul, or mainspring 
of action in this seduction, and if you neutralize 
the effects of this, you may be certain that prose- 
lytism will end in Ireland. Go on, then, in the 
good work ; persevere and increase in every way 



DEPARTURE OF HIS EMINENCE FROM IRELAND. 323 

your exertions, and if my feeble blessing can have 
any power in advancing yonr most commendable 
objects, you have it with all my heart. 

His Eminence then bestowed his benediction upon the 
assemblage, who knelt devoutly to receive it. 

Mr. John Kelch, in the name of the society, thanked 
the Very Rev. Dean Meyler for giving tliem the use of 
the church on that occasion, as well as for his assistance 
at all times. The deputation then withdrew. 

His Eminence soon afterwards took his leave, and pro- 
ceeded to the carriage which was in waiting, accompanied 
by the Rev. Messrs. Clifford and Burke. He was enthu- 
siastically cheered by a vast concourse of people who as- 
sembled in the street. 

DEPARTURE OF HIS EMINENCE FROM IRELAND. 

After leaving the residence of the Yen. Dean Meyler, 
his Eminence proceeded in his carriage to the photographic 
institution of Messrs. Simonton and Millard, 39 Lower 
Sackville Street, where he sat for his portrait in the full 
robes of a cardinal. On his Eminence returning to his 
carriage the vast crowd who had assembled in the street 
hailed him with the most hearty cheering, which was con- 
tinued as the carriage drove off to the residence of his 
Grace the Lord Archbishop. At half past four o'clock, 
his Eminence, accompanied by the Rev. E. Lambert Clif- 
ford and the Rev. Mr. Burke, proceeded in the carriage 
of Surgeon O'Reilly to that gentleman's residence. Sans 
Souci, near Booterstown, where his Eminence dined and 
slept that night. As he drove through the streets he was 
loudly cheered ; large crowds assembled on the Rock Road 
gave a most cordial and hearty greeting ; and upon his 
approach to Booterstown the people flocked in hundreds 
to pay him every mark of respect and to ask his blessing. 
His Eminence visited the beautiful church and convent 
conducted by the Yery Rev. Dr. Ennis. The long avenue 
loading to Sans Souci was thronged by large assemblages 



324 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

of ladies and gentlemen and country people from tlie 
surrounding districts. The preparations made to receive 
his Eminence were worthy of the occasion and of the 
hospitality of his entertainer. On the carriage-way lead- 
ing through the beautifully planted lawn two triumphal 
arches were erected, composed of evergreens interspersed 
with flowers and exotics. On the top of one, the nearest 
to the entrance gate, a splendid banner was placed, bear- 
ing the words " Cead Mille Failthe." The second tri- 
umphal arch bore, in large and ornamental letters, the 
word " Welcome " and the initials " C. W." The bands 
of the Kingstown and Blackrock temperance societies 
were stationed on the ground, and performed alternately 
during the evening. On his Eminence arriving at the 
hall-door he was received by Surgeon O'Reilly, who con- 
ducted him to the suite of apartments prepared for his 
reception. A distinguished company of ladies and gentle- 
men were invited to meet his Eminence at dinner. At 
nightfall the triumphal arches and the trees in the lawn 
were illuminated with Chinese lanterns and variegated 
lights, after which the outer gates were thrown opeix to 
admit the hundreds who were craving permission to be let 
in to see his Eminence, and obtain his benediction. Noth- 
ing could present a more pleasing sight than that which 
the lights exhibited through the foliage of the trees. At 
a later period of the evening there was a display of fire- 
works ; and the delight of the people knew no bounds at 
seeing the honors that were paid to his Eminence. In 
the large crowd present there was not the slightest dis- 
order or irregularity to be perceived. 

His Eminence Cardinal Wiseman left Kingstown at 
nine o'clock, by the mail steamer Cambria, for London. 
The intended departure of his Eminence could haye been 
but very imperfectly known in the city ; nevertheless, the 
eight o'clock train from Westland Row took to Kingstown 
a considerable number of persons who were anxious to 
obtain a last glimpse of his Eminence, and receive final ben- 
ediction ere he quitted Ireland. At half past eight o'clock 
his Eminence left Sans Souci, near Booterstown, in Sur- 
geon O'Reilly's carriage, and proceeded by the Rock Road 



DEPARTURE OF HIS EMINENCE FROM IRELAND. 825 

to Kingstown. He was accompanied by the Rev, E. Lam- 
bert Clifford, the Rev. Mr. Burke, and Surgeon O'Reilly. 
As the carriage proceeded along the road groups of peo- 
ple assembled at various points, cheering his Eminence 
with great enthusiasm, and some followed the equipage a 
considerable distance, with the view of getting his bless- 
ing, which he bestowed on them to their great gratifica- 
tion. Shortly before nine o'clock the carriage drew up at 
the departure pier, outside which the Cambria lay moored. 
As soon as his Eminence went on board, accompanied by 
the Rev. E. Lambert Clifford and the Rev. Mr. Burke, 
the ladies and gentlemen assembled on the pier thronged 
the gangway leading to the steamer, and reached the 
deck, where they immediately knelt in groups to receive 
his Eminence's benediction, and kiss his hand. The 
Most Rev. Dr. Cullen came down by the half past eight 
o'clock train, and went on board to bid farewell to his 
Eminence. The Right Rev. the Bishop of Clonfert, and 
the Yery Rev. Dr. Derry, with several other clergymen, 
including the Rev. Monsignor Yore, and the Rev. Pastor 
of Booterstown, were also present to bid his Eminence a 
respectful adieu. The crowd surrounding his Eminence 
on deck while the steamer was preparing to sail increased 
considerably every moment, and the most intense eager- 
ness was manifested by all to touch his hand, and have 
bestowed on them the gift of his blessing. At length the 
last bell rung, the Most Rev. Dr. Cullen quitted the 
steamer, followed by Surgeon O'Reilly and the clergymen 
present at the scene, and then, with visible reluctance and 
sincere regret, the large number of persons who had paid 
their final respects to his Eminence, passed along the gang- 
way to the pier, which they lined from end to end. Be- 
fore the ropes were cast off his Eminence came forward 
to the side of the steamer ; as he did so, groups of ladies 
and gentlemen facing him knelt down, and then his Emi- 
nence, who seemed to be considerably affected by the warm 
feeling displayed by the assemblage, gave them his bene- 
diction. A moment afterwards the Cambria moved away 
from the pier, and steamed slowly towards the sea. The 
people then cheered his Eminence repeatedly, and hats 
28 



326 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

and handkerchiefs were waved in token of farewell. 
Several ran along the pier to its extremity, and as the 
steamer passed the harbor entrance and proceeded on 
her voyage, they expressed their feelings in loud bursts 
of cheering, repeated again and again till the steamer was 
far out at sea. 



THE CARDINAL AND THE MATER MISERICORDI^ 

HOSPITAL. 

The following is the gracious reply of his Eminence 
Cardinal Wiseman to an application made by the Sisters 
of Mercy to preach for the Hospital of the Mater Miseri- 
cordiae : — 

Waterford, September 14:th, 1858. 

Dear Rev. Mother, — I am sure you will believe me 
when I assure you that nothing but impossibility could 
prevent my doing any thing in my power, by preaching or 
lecturing, in favor of your noble Mater Misericordias 
Hospital. It is, indeed, a building and institution con- 
ceived and commenced in the most generous spirit of 
charity. I cannot fear that so Catholic an undertaking 
will fail to receive every support in a city like Dublin, 
where that virtue seems to be so truly appreciated and 
practised, and my voice could have added but little to the 
natural instincts of its spirit. As an edifice, it will be not 
merely an ornament to the city, but a lesson so well un- 
derstood and observed abroad, that what is done for 
Christ in the person of His poor and infirm, should vie 
with what is done by man for himself and his gratifica- 
tions. A splendid theatre and a mean hospital make a 
sorrowful contrast in a Catholic city. I pray God most 
earnestly to bless this glorious work and all your commu- 
nity. Begging in return your good prayers, I am, ever 
your affectionate servant in Jesus Christ, 

N. Card. Wiseman. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 327 

IMPKESSIONS OF A KECENT VISIT TO 

IRELAND. 

On Wednesday evening, 3d November, his Eminence 
Cardinal Wiseman delivered a lecture at the Hanover 
Square Rooms, on the subject of Ireland and the Irish 
character, from the impressions made on him during his 
recent sojourn in that country. 

The time fixed for the lecture to commence was eight 
o'clock, but long before that hour every available seat in 
the spacious rooms, galleries, and platform was occupied. 
The audience must have numbered between 2,000 and 
3,000 persons. 

This lecture his Eminence gave for the benefit of the 
Islington Conference of the Society of St. Yincent de 
Paul, and a large number of the boys educated there 
were placed at the back of the platform, who, with their 
blue jackets trimmed with scarlet, and their scarlet badges, 
presented a very pretty appearance. 

On his Eminence entering the rooms he was received 
with a warm and hearty welcome, and when he ascended 
the platform the cheering was tremendous. The whole 
audience rose as one man, and the waving of hats and 
handkerchiefs lasted several minutes. 

When the cheering had subsided his Eminence spoke 
as follows : — 

My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have been 
requested to embody in a lectm^e the impressions 
made upon my mind by a recent tour in Ireland, 
and I confess that I find the subject fraught with 
many difficulties. It is not by any means that 
those impressions were evanescent, that they were 
not sufficiently deep and lasting to remain in all 
their freshness till now ; for I must say, that could 



328 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

my life be prolonged to the most extravagant 
imaginary period, nothing would, I am sure, weaken 
the strong emotions which the recollection of those 
days has excited, and must excite within me. But 
it is, and this is my first difficulty, that the texture 
of each mind is peculiar ; and, if I may pursue the 
figure, the sympathetic ink by which what may be 
called an impression can be clearly formed upon 
one mind, is not so easily transferred from it to 
another. We look all at the same object, or, at 
least, collection of objects, with very different eyes. 
Imagine a hundred persons borne along in the 
same train, who are of precisely the same country, 
looking out on either side upon the objects through 
the midst of which they are rapidly passing ; if you 
can read their thoughts, there are not two of them 
who are noticing the same class of phenomena. 
One is probably gazing at the heavens, not alto- 
gether to admire their splendor, but trying to catch 
the prognostics of the coming hour, when the train 
shall have arrived at the sea-shore, and he shall 
have to make his passage across the channel, which 
divides his own from other lands. Another is look- 
ing on the earth, and doubtless with his own pecu- 
liar views. If he is an agriculturist, he is judging 
of the nature of the soil, w^hether it be fertile or 
barren ; if a man of science, he is taking note of 
the geological nature of the land through which 
he is passing, or of the strata of the cutting into 
w^hich he is entering. One is examining the crops, 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 329 

another the stock which is feeding around him ; 
another, perhaps, is occupying himself, though he 
appears to be most intently observant of all, in 
watching the mile-stones as they are passed, or 
only in noting the varieties of the shado.w which 
the train casts, now on a wall, and now projected 
over the embankment to the field below. 

And so it is with the traveller through a country. 
Each goes for a special purpose. One is a politician ; 
and he takes no notice of any thing except what 
may give him ideas of the balance of parties, and 
the prevalence of certain political opinions. Another 
is devoting his attention to statistics ; and he is en- 
grossed by signs and facts which indicate the popu- 
lation, the trade and the commerce of the district 
in which he is journeying. The philanthropist, on 
the other hand, is looking out for institutions of 
charity and benevolence. And so, each one has his 
own peculiar eye, his own individual view, when 
making his observations on any country, in its whole 
or in parts, at home or in distant lands ; and when 
two travellers come together and compare notes, 
collected on the same ground, each one probably 
regards those made by the other as insipid and little 
to the purpose. It is not easy, therefore, with the 
view which I have taken, and with the means of 
noting what interested me, which I commanded, to 
flatter myself that the result will possess an equal 
interest for you. However, I think that the shortest 
way is to unfurl my flag at the beginning of my 
28* 



330 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

march — and to say that in my different journey- 
ings in Ireland, and in my sojourn in different places 
in that island, it was natural to me to trace out, to 
follow up, and to dwell on, those objects and inter- 
ests which are dearest to myself; that I went as 
a Catholic ; that I looked at every thing with a 
Catholic eye, and that it would be impossible for 
me to record my impressions without endeavoring 
to convey to you sincerely and soundly Catholic 
thoughts. 

Before I begin really to enter on the subject of 
my lecture, it may be well, in order to remove preju- 
dice and correct some false impressions, to state why 
I went to Ireland. And the narrative will be very 
brief and very simple. In the course of last spring, 
I received a letter from a bishop in the west of 
Ireland, telling me that in a town in his diocese — 
in a town circumstanced as many others are in 
Ireland, with its whole property belonging to an 
adverse landlord, but where the population was 
almost to a man Catholic — a large and beautiful 
church had been raised, almost entirely by the 
unaided efforts of the people ; that he thought this 
was an occasion when the appearance of a bishop 
from another country, and one circumstanced as I 
happen to be, would be encouraging to those poor 
people ; that it would give them a feeling of addi- 
tional satisfaction in the efforts which they had 
made ; and that it would somewhat encourage them 
to bear up against the constant opposition which 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 331 

they met with in all their efforts to raise their heads 
a little above the level to which they had been de- 
pressed. I reflected, and soon concluded that this 
was an occasion worthy of any one's embracing, who 
loved to do good among the poor; and that to en- 
courage them in good works was an object which a 
bishop might consider a sufficient motive for spar- 
ing a few days ; so the result of my dehberation 
was, that I acceded to the request which had been 
made. I named my time, desiring that my visit 
should be kept secret, lest I should be invited to do 
more than I intended. I had also made a condi- 
tional engagement some years before, which I felt 
bound to keep ; and so, in due time, I went over. 
I was sent by no one ; I asked no leave of any one. 
I had been to Belgium, to France, and to other places 
for a similar purpose, that of paying an act of re- 
spect to bishops who wished my attendance at some 
of their ecclesiastical functions ; still less could I 
decline going to assist a brother bishop in a part of 
the same empire, in what I considered a good work. 
It was, therefore, entirely my own act, and I am 
alone responsible for it.* 

I had no permission, no instructions, and nothing 
to do but to preach two sermons and come back 
again. It pleased others kindly to give a different 

* This was said to contradict the perfectly groundless rumors again and 
again repeated by some papers, that this journey was the result of a com- 
mission from the Holy See, or in some way had an official character. Nothing 
could be more untrue ; and the account in the text is, in the strictest sense, 
carrect. 



332 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

form to my intendedlj private and quiet visit. Cir- 
cumstances were thus altered ; new work came upon 
me, which I endeavored to discharge, and then re- 
turned home. That is the simple history of the 
whole of this journey. But further, let me observe, 
that it was not a journey of observation. I did not 
write a single memorandum ; I did not take a single 
note ; I hardly wrote a letter ; I had no time for it. 
My observations were confined to what passed 
before me, as I went from place to place, or as I 
staid any where in the discharge of the duties I 
had undertaken. I cannot, therefore, offer you any 
thing elaborate, or as the result of any studied ob- 
servation. I must be content to give you the sim- 
ple impressions which that pleasant month spent in 
the sister island has left upon my mind. 

And I will endeavor to reduce to a simple for- 
mula the encouraging impressions there made upon 
me by many and various circumstances, by saying 
that the thought which I have brought back with 
me is this : that Ireland, at this moment, represents 
a great nationality, nobly rousing itself from a state 
of depression into which it had been cast for many 
years, and even centuries. 

This is my feeling ; and in order to illustrate how 
it was produced, I do not think it will be necessary 
at all to dwell on the evils of the past, or to say a 
word beyond alluding to your own knowledge of 
certain notorious facts, which are not even for a 
moment disputed. But I cannot help observing 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 333 

that there is hardly a more interesting period in the 
history of any country, in the annals of any nation, 
than that in which there is a transition made, and 
a transition on a great scale, from an unhappy, un- 
prosperous state, to one of prosperity and promise. 
In olden times, trials of this depressive sort were, 
indeed, long and afflicting. Seventy years of cap- 
tivity were considered a time of trial for the chosen 
people ; and we may divide those who suffered it 
into three classes. There are, first, those carried 
away in youth, in middle life, or in old age, who 
bear w^th them more or less vivid memories to cheer 
them, some with slight reminiscences, others with 
full recollection of their state flourishing, their 
country at peace, a worship in full observance, which 
has left them, as their holiest legacy, the remem- 
brance of all its splendor and glory. Then there 
come those who, born in the captivity, or too young to 
recollect any thing previous to it, grow up and spend 
their lives and die, without any thing to solace 
them ; with no recollection of the past ; the history 
which they have heard in their childhood gradually 
decaying and melting away from their memories : 
servitude and desolation, the strange tongue, and 
the hard word, and the biting jest of the oppressor 
and of the stranger, — amidst these they live and die 
in darkness and desolation. And then at last comes 
the third class, of those who begin their lives in 
sorrow, who have nothing of the spirit of their 
fatherS; or of their happy recollections; scarcely of 



334 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

their traditions ; but who suddenly, by a change in 
their state, find themselves once more restored to 
the enjoyment of their native land, and able to work 
with their hands and hearts for a restoration of 
better times ; and who, though they may weep over 
the inferiority of their second temple, may still 
glory that they are engaged in raising some temple 
to their God. 

But when you come to look over a period of 
three hundred years, 0, how many generations do 
these absorb in sorrow ! Few amongst us could 
trace back for that period the names of our ances- 
tors. We carry them not at least in our memory. 
It effaces the traditions, in the family and home, of 
all that passed before. And that has been the fate 
of the country of which I am treating. Since the 
change came over it, which swept away so com- 
pletely all the glories of its ancient Church, there 
have succeeded ages of sad cruelty and spoliation. 
We need not look at the details, merciless and fearful 
as they now look to us, which accompanied these 
vicissitudes. But let it be sufficient to come to the 
conclusion, that at the end of that period, the work 
was accomphshed. The country was in a state in 
which no other civilized one is found, divided into 
two classes, in a state of antagonism and almost of 
armed animosity towards each other; the one pos- 
sessed of the soil, of wealth, and influence, and 
whatever makes men great before the world ; the 
other laboring and toiling in abject submission, at 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 335 

all events subjection^ under those from whom they 
had to seek, not the food of idleness, but labor, by 
which they could earn their food. All know the 
old history of ejectments, and evictions, and driv- 
ing away from small holdings. Such was the daily 
story which we remember hearing of that country, 
— those of us, that is, who are past the middle 
period of life, — when at times almost the whole of 
it was put into a state of outlawry, when it was in 
the possession of one party that only sought to 
oppress the other. 

In the mean time, while these poor creatures — for 
so I must needs call them — were literally starving 
in the midst of plenty, were dying away in a 
climate and on a soil which Providence had made 
caj)able of sustaining the most stalwarth and teem- 
ing population, they clung to one thing, and that 
could not be wrested from them. One only bless- 
ing remained to them. We all remember since our 
childhood the story taken from ancient mythology 
of the wonderful box, the casket which contained 
every good gift • and how when it was opened by 
the unfortunate Pandora they all flew away, so that 
one only remained, but that was worth all the rest. 
There lingered alone of all (it would not quit) 
Hope ; and what, I ask you, what is religion but 
hope brought home to the heart of the poor and 
the afflicted? What is Christianity but the im- 
mense trust of man in God ? What is the gospel 
but the message of hope^ of eternal hope, which 



336 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

teaches man to despise what is passing ; to look 
forward to the end of every present wretchedness 
as even the ground and means of future happiness ? 
and it was this, and this alone, that remained to 
this poor afiiicted people. Let me indeed say 
boldly at once, so long as this was not taken from 
them, they were in possession of that pearl which 
it is well to sacrifice every thing else to gain if you 
have it not, or to keep if you have it already in 
possession. One may destroy learning, and knowl- 
edge, and education, and culture, and civilization 
almost. But, 0, if you can only preserve alive a 
steadfast faith and belief in God, and in His eternal 
mercies, and in His infinite rewards, you will secure 
for the heart of the poor man, far more than all the 
craft of statesmen, or all the violence of enemies can 
possibly pluck from him. Well, then, during these 
three hundred years, while they were ridiculed be- 
cause they dwelt in mud cabins on the edge of the 
bog, this supported that prostrate population. Why, 
when the last spark had died out from the turf on 
the cabin floor, and when the storm was beating 
around the dismantled roof in the cold winter, and 
the wind was penetrating through every chink and 
cranny ; when the poor, desolate, frozen Irishman 
said (as I have no doubt he did say again and 
again), "Glory, be to God," there was a brighter 
light in that miserable hut than all the lustres of 
the most splendid assembly-room could have com- 
municated to it. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 337 

This has been the condition of Irishmen, suffer- 
ing in many a way for many, and man}', and many 
a year ; but the greatest trial was not in this. It 
came when the religion of the people, of the mass, 
the bulk of the people, was, as far as human power 
could effect it, swept away. Not a church was left 
to us, not a place in which to assemble to worship 
God ; not a college, not a school, not an institution 
by which religion could be supported or propped 
up ; not any one of those appliances by which the 
inward devotion is so much warmed and sustained ; 
not a function of the Church, not an object which 
could move the religious affections, hardly even the 
power of receiving instruction ; it is a miracle, 
indeed, how, with the loss, the total loss, of every 
one of these almost necessary aids to religion for 
so many-^'^enturies, it was preserved, not only alive, 
but bright and brilliant ; not only warm, but burn- 
ing in the hearts of the entire population. 

It was in this state of things that a further trial 
was encountered. For those hundred of years man 
had subjected the country to every form of oppres- 
sion and wretchedness ; but there came now what 
might have been considered, in ordinary reasoning, 
a still worse and still more difficult trial. After so 
long sustaining the power of their oppressors, it 
appeared as if the might of God suddenly broke 
upon them. Famine, fever — grown almost to the 
dimensions of pestilence — invaded the greater por- 
tion of the country, and those parts with greater 
29 



338 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

severity in which there \Yere less means of resist- 
ance and remedy. The poorer the distant mountain 
regions in which they dwelt, the smaller the towns 
and hamlets in which they were congregated, the 
more helpless naturally were the victims of those 
dreadful calamities ; they came one after another, 
the consequence, if you please, one of another, but 
still so dependent on the Will higher than that of 
man, that we cannot but consider them as a visita- 
tion of God — one of those mysterious visitations, 
it may be, of mercy as well as of justice. It was 
the Almighty "wounding and curing, striking" 
that His "hand might heal" (Job v. 18). Eemem- 
ber what David said when the choice of evils was 
offered to him: "It is better to fall into the hands 
of the Lord, than into the hands of men" (1 Para- 
lip, xxi. 13). This people had suffered for centu- 
ries from the hands of men, and they had repined, 
and they had writhed under the trampling foot of 
the oppressor, and had risen up against him. They 
had shown by acts of outward violence that their 
hearts could no longer brook the contempt and 
hardship with which they Avere treated. They had 
rebelled against the hand of man because they had 
believed and felt him to be unjust. But so soon as 
the hand of God touched them they murmured 
not, they repined not, they rose not, because they 
knew that He was just. And so, they who would not 
suffer the injustice of man, were seen to bear that 
series of calamities inflicted by the hand of God 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 339 

with a calm and a patience, of which I doubt if there 
is another example in the history of nations. Those 
men, strong and powerful, who could easily have 
resisted open oppression, and who might have been 
tempted to do so, when they saw the pestilence 
reach their homes, bowed their heads in silence. 
They beheld their little ones, the only flowers 
which grew around their cottage, pine and fade, 
and at length exhale their little breaths in all the 
fragrance of innocence ; and they murmured not, 
but bore the little nestlings in their arms away to 
the grave, hastily prepared -, for the very men who 
had to dig them were themselves struck, and were 
scarcely able to perform the last duty of burying 
those whom they had so soon to follow. This was 
the condition of the country, and some said — " 0, 
we have been right in our treatment of them, for 
God has followed in our footsteps, and is crushing 
them outrio^ht." 

Yet these calamities have been the very turning 
point of the fate and history of the country. From 
that moment of deepest woe we may date such 
changes, essential or important, as have opened a 
bright future to the country. It may be said that 
through that tremendous calamity, which, for a 
time, seemed to crush all hope, as the clod is 
broken and levelled beneath an iron roller, there 
was a seed hidden by a better hand, and ready, 
in a very short time, to sprout forth and produce 
its bountiful fruit. Three changes may be said 



340 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

to have been caused by that period, and to date 
from it. 

The first was that of emigration, which naturally 
took its origin in the desolation that surrounded 
the inhabitants ; the second was that of culture, 
and of agriculture in consequence; and the third 
was the loosening of property, which passed into 
the hands of those, who, according to the ordinary 
laws of nature, should, at least, have had their fair 
share of it 

Before that period there was a want of energy 
and enterprise, or, if you please, of heart in the 
Irish peasantry for emigration ; there was, on the 
contrary, a clinging to the soil, to the home of their 
afflictions and their fathers, which prevented the 
many who could not find employment at home 
from seeking it elsewhere. This spell was now 
broken, and this was the first advantage obtained, 
was the first of these improvements. But at the 
same time the changes thus produced in the popu- 
lation had the effect of rendering labor, and even 
the possession of small holdings, more accessible to 
the diminished numbers that remained at home. 
It is evident that before this period, while there 
were colonies inviting on every side, in the east 
and in the west, there was not comparatively any 
eager desire to take advantage of the prospects 
opened out by them. But now began what has 
been called the " Exodus," the continual out-flowing 
of the people, so steady and unceasing that it at 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 341 

length began to alarm the government of the 
countrj. But no ; under the good laws of Provi- 
dence a true level is sure to be found ; and when 
so many have gone to seek their fortunes, and 
often find them in distant climates, those who re- 
main behind, finding that there is good and suffi- 
cient employment and food, of course have no 
longer the temptation to follow them ; and there- 
fore the population is reduced to the just propor- 
tion of the wants of the country. 

At the same time, many of those who have gone 
abroad to seek honest labor, by their industry 
support not only themselves, but often others. 
Generally the emigrant when he goes far from his 
home, and becomes the father of a family, has his 
own circle round him, has made new relations with 
the world, and perhaps forgets the cradle of his 
infancy and the abode of his aged friends. But the 
Irish emigrant is not such a man. For the sums of 
money which we read of up to the other day, as 
transmitted year by year, and month by month, by 
emigrants to their families at home, pass all calcu- 
lation, and I may say become almost incredible. 
The able and liberally-minded Sir James Stephen 
stated the other day at Liverpool (Oct. 13), that, 
without counting the sums transmitted by emi- 
grants to their friends in Ireland through private 
hands, those that passed through banking and com- 
mercial firms in ten years, from 1848 to 1857, 
amounted to the prodigious sum of £9,937,000, 
29* 



342 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

nearly ten millions sterling ! These emigrants are 
thus often the support of poor relations at home. 
Instead of becomino; selfish and castino: awav the 
memory of their homes, they do their utmost to 
raise them to a more nourishing condition, or at all 
events to assist those who inhabit them, in tilling 
the earth and earning their livelihood. This emi- 
gration, therefore, has not been a mere rush of 
desperate men to seek their fortunes ; nor has it 
broken those sacred familj' links which were previ- 
ouslv so sacred in Ireland ; but it has been the 
means of testino; and makino- better known the 
truthfulness and soundness of the Irish heart. 

The next revolution which I have mentioned, 
that in the cultivation of the soil, is very naturally 
attributed to the decav of that food which had 
formed the staj^le nourishment of the poor. That 
sad monotony of diet, if I may so call it, is in itself 
injurious to health. But, besides that, it confined 
all agricultural industry to almost one plant — I 
speak comparatively of course — and it pleased 
Divine Providence to stretch forth its chastening 
hand and touch it, so that like Jonas's gourd it 
withered ; and by that means to produce a great 
and most important revolution on the flice of 
Ireland. I can speak from my OAvn observation. 
Do not think I am going to play the farmer, or to 
state any thing very scientific on the subject of 
agriculture, or beyond what may strike the eye of 
any observant person. But I have inquired again 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT YISIT TO IRELAND. 343 

and again from intelligent friends, whether the 
change is real, and thej have confirined me in con- 
cluding that there is in Ireland at the present time 
a regular succession of crops as in England. I 
have seen m Ireland some finer crops, and fields in 
more promising condition, than I had seen in Eng- 
land before I went, or than I have seen since my 
return. I had opportunities of conversing with one 
or two men of high attainments in this branch of 
practical science — men wdio have directed the cul- 
tivation of large tracts of country — and they 
assured me that a regular routine of crops was 
every where established in Ireland. Indeed, I was 
surprised to see the very small proportion of land 
devoted to the culture of the old root, the potato, 
compared with other crops. 

This is a change much for the better, not only be- 
cause it has produced a material improvement of 
condition, by furnishing better food, but because 
we know that the mind expands in proportion to 
the variety in skill that is required from it. The 
common dav laborer who croes no further than the 
cultivation of the same one crop, becomes rooted 
with it in the soil ; his looks rise not above it; his 
intelligence becomes limited to that narrow sphere. 
But the man who has to study the nature of the 
soil, and to look to its wants, and supply them by 
his scientific knowledge ; who has gradually to 
learn what is most profitable, what is grown with 
the greatest ease, employs his mind, inquires, com- 



344 CAKDiNAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

pares, reads, and judges for himself after all. Then 
he becomes conversant with men ; he goes to the 
market, he studies prices, and gets an insight into 
what before he had considered to be confined to 
men of higher attainments and class. No doubt 
there is an amount of mental power developed by 
the advancement of what naturally appears the 
lowest of scientific pursuits. 

Then, let any man go through Ireland now who 
has been there before, and note the herds and 
flocks, the stock throughout the country, and he 
will find things not only importantly, but totally 
changed. He will look in vain for races of animals 
which he saw years ago. In every department 
farmers and yeomen, and all who are occupied with 
the care of stock, are up to the mark in w^hatever 
relates to agricultural industry. You meet every 
where the best breeds of cattle, excellently man- 
aged. The face of the country in this respect is 
changed. I will not say you will find the finish of 
the English farm ; but remember that you have to 
deal with a people who, by their own efforts, com- 
paratively without capital for hundreds of years, 
after paying rack-rent, have succeeded in improving 
their land. You cannot expect that they will in- 
dulge all at once in luxuries ; it is enough that 
they are improving at a rate which is astonishing 
to those who have paid impartial attention to the 
subject. Such is the second benefit of the won- 
derful w^ays of God in teaching people by dreadful 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND 345 

scourges, as they are often called, which are, how- 
ever, often the mere chastenings of a father. 

But this is not all. It is well known that in 
Ireland the land was in the possession of the few ; 
that landlords have for ages held large tracts of 
country, and if they endeavored to extort unnatu- 
ral prices from the competition of the poor, who, 
from being in a state of starvation, were ready to 
seize on any chance of food, it was not always so 
much from avarice or cruelty as from necessity. 
For the landlord's debts the creditor had often to 
seize on so large a portion of the nominal income 
of an estate, and there were so many out-goings 
that, with lordly residences and splendid demesnes, 
many of the gentry were little better than pau- 
pers themselves. Not only were many of them 
unable to pay their debts, but in consequence of 
the famine they did not receive even that portion 
of their exorbitant rents with which they had often 
been obliged to be satisfied ; they sank into pen- 
ury, and were glad to be relieved of the property 
which had become more than a burden to them. 
And that led to the wise law by which so much 
land has been thrown into the market, and has 
become the property of small owners. And let 
me observe that it is not the first purchaser that 
will in the end be the holder of the land. Many 
who buy upon the speculation of selling at a profit, 
or who, having bought, do not like, if they are 
strangers, to go into a new country, or who, per- 



346 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

haps, do not find a suitable house on the estate, 
sell again. At each sale a subdivision takes place. 
Persons with small capital are able to become pos- 
sessors of land ; traders in towns, who have put by 
their savings, like to invest them in real property ; 
and the land, which seemed by the sale of so many 
estates likely to pass awa}^ from the inhabitants of 
the soil, is going gradually back to them, and in 
the course of a few years will be divided among 
many and many comfortable and respectable, though 
small, land-owners. See, then, how, so long as the 
country was under the oppression of man, there 
seemed to be no power in the people of Ireland to 
rise above poverty, there being no elasticity in the 
tenure and institutions of the country. The only 
means of releasino: themselves from the terrible 
oppression seemed to be the frightful, unwarrant^ 
able, and indefensible course of revolution, as we 
call it on the continent, or rebellion as it is called 
when speaking of home ; a course which only 
added to their distress. The moment God's hand 
fell, heavy as it was, you see again how wonderfully 
it wounded, and it healed ; it cast down, and it 
raised up. It always does so ; and Ireland, from 
the touch of that fatherly hand, severe as it ap- 
peared, has risen to a magnificence of prosperity, 
wdiich promises more even than any one would 
have ventured to prognosticate. I must remark 
that the many opportunities which I had of ob- 
serving the condition of Ireland gave me another 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 347 

test, very simple and obvious, of the state of the 
people, and that is, the healthy look, the substan- 
tial clothing, the manly bearing which I witnessed, 
and many other things which showed that there 
was no feeling of abject depression among the peo- 
ple, and that there was no positive destitution in 
many of those parts where we have always un- 
derstood that it prevailed. There may be vivid 
representations of misery, squalidness, and mean 
subjection yet continued in those stories which 
pretend to describe the character of the Irish people 
through a medium most unfavorable to them, and 
these may have formed the opinion of many here, 
so as to have been accustomed to consider them as 
a poor, a ragged, and famished population ; but I 
saw nothing of the sort. I know not what they 
may be in very remote districts where distress may 
still prevail. You know that social progress does 
not move by a sudden rush ; it goes forward grad- 
ually — it is like the waves encroaching on the 
shore ; one goes a little farther than the last, and 
then it seems as if the water receded for a time, 
and you can scarcely tell whether there is any 
advance, until you find a considerable space, and 
at last the whole covered. So it is with the revived 
energy of a people acting throughout the land. 
It begins at points, at centres where there is popu- 
lation, and where that population is furnished with 
the means of cultivation, or where manufactures 
naturally arise ; but then there are still distant 



348 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

mountains and remote valleys, which it may take 
a long time before prosperity reaches. And thus 
it is no objection to what I have said, to find that 
there are regions where poverty still prevails, and 
even distress ; but there is every cheering hope 
that, by degrees, there will not remain one portion 
of the island that is not visited by a well-earned 
prosperity. 

Perhaps it may occur to some that I am speak- 
ing of the people — of the nationality of Ireland — 
as if composed of the poorer classes, with only a 
certain number of those in a higher sphere. If, in 
appearance, I make this the extent of Ireland's 
nationality, I own I do ; because I do not call that 
national which is fastened to a nation, not by 
growth, but by cramps — even though they may 
be golden cramps — that which does not partake 
of its own vitality. And whether you speak of 
absentee landlords, or whether you speak of those 
who, on the spot, discharge certain spiritual func- 
tions, but who have no sympathy with the people, 
and go not with them, consult not with them, but 
who merely study their own interest or their own 
views, despising, even thwarting and opposing, the 
wishes of those whom they aJBfect to serve in what 
they undertake, and who therefore cannot be said 
to be a portion of them — I could not consider 
that the thoughts and feelings of men in such 
circumstances, however respectable, however high 
in character, however able, however philanthropic, 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 349 

can form a part of what is called a national move- 
ment. Or, if you please to maintain that they are 
a portion of one and the same plant, I will own it ; 
but I must say there is, to my eye, something of 
the mistletoe about it, which grows, indeed, on a 
tree, but has not leaf, or stem, or color, or character 
like the plant on which it is fastened ; only I will 
further remark, it contrives to keep green even 
when the tree has lost every vestige of verdure. 

And now, if I may use my own experience, I will 
say that nothing struck me more in Ireland than 
the characteristic resemblance which I found every 
where among the people. You can find in differ- 
ent parts of Ireland what you may call different 
national families. In some parts you will find more 
robust growth, a greater physical development, 
while in other parts you may observe a " race," as it 
is called, not so strong, nor possessing such power- 
ful physical characteristics. Now, these varieties are 
to be traced in every part of England, and in every 
country of the world. But in the character of the 
people it seemed to me that every where there was 
a resemblance which was the stamp of the most 
strict complete nationality ; and that nationality 
seemed all to be one in its great principles, as well 
as in all that it was doing, or trying to do. The 
manners of the people, their looks, the countenances 
may be different, but one expression pervades them ; 
there is in every man of them, wherever you go, a 
warmth and an expansion of heart which is totally 
30 



350 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

different from what you find — from what I have 
found — in any other country. There is a sponta- 
neity of expression; there is a facility of giving 
utterance to their thoughts ; there is a brilhancy, 
even a poetry about them which animates the whole 
of the peasantry. They have a smile upon their 
countenance which is bright and cheering ; the light 
of their eye is not only brilliant but most tender; 
and I was surprised, in the multitude of persons 
whom I saw congregated, to the amount of thou- 
sands, to observe the sort of natural gentleness of 
bearing which belongs, most markedly, to a moral 
people. I never in the whole of my tour, and I 
have said my observation extends to tens of thou- 
sands of people, saw a rude act by one man or youth 
to another. When a crowd of persons came together, 
one group of them, who had gratified their feelings, 
would give way and say, " Now let others come 
forward," with a considerate and courteous manner 
which would do honor to any assembly of the weal- 
thy, and what we call the educated classes. Gentle- 
men, I believe a moral peasant is more of a gentle- 
man than one who is merely born or bred so. The 
manner too in which they make known their grati- 
fication or their joy is the same throughout. I have 
seen for miles along the road houses shut up, the 
windows and doors closed, but all adorned with 
flowers and boughs, when they who had left behind 
them their emblems of their good feelings could 
not receive a w^ord or a look of commendation in 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 351 

return. It was their way of showing the sponta- 
neousness of their feeHngs, and this was the case 
all over the country ; the same form of demonstra- 
tion seemed to prevail every where. 

I have thus endeavored to show you the spirit of 
the people who are shaking off the dust of three 
hundred years, and asserting in a most noble man- 
ner their true position — you recollect I am not 
speaking of their political position, but of their grand 
social position — who are advancing in education, 
advancing in culture, advancing in the sense of their 
true interests. This is what I mean by progress 
and the raising of Ireland to its proper position ; a 
position which lessens jealousies, which diminishes 
antagonism, which makes men feel that it is not by 
lowering others that they raise themselves, but by 
taking their own flight and leaving others to follow 
if they can. 

Having seen this, the next natural questions to 
ask are, what is the first feeling which this great 
development has produced on the Irish mind, and 
what are the demonstrations of this progress ? Per- 
haps, if you look sometimes at — I do not know 
what to call them exactly — but papers, or articles, 
or reviews about Ireland, jou will find a sort of ex- 
ultation betrayed, that in proportion as Irishmen 
are becoming more acquainted with the good things 
of this world, are acquiring land, seeking to possess 
territory, aiming at becoming great, they are falling 
off in regard for the religion in which they had been 



352 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

wrapped up for years ; they are becoming more 
independent of their clergy ; less attached to the 
" superstitions " of their creed — emancipating them- 
selves from a certain great city in Italy, and its 
sovereign, so that by degrees one may expect to 
get them to read Socinian pamphlets, to forget their 
faith, and to become comfortable free-thinkers. 
Allow me to tell you that the best way to examine 
this is by evidence. I cannot tell what jDasses 
in the Irish, more than in any other, mind ; but I 
know that there are certain principles which I can 
apply towards forming an estimate of it. When 
you tell me that as a man grows rich he becomes less 
anxious about his religion — that he cares less for his 
creed, and his priests, the first evidence that I should 
expect is that he has got a more comfortable house 
for himself (quite natural !), that as he becomes 
richer he will give a better education to his children 
(quite right !) ; but I should expect that when the 
parish priest comes and says, " You have had a good 
harvest ; we must have a new chapel — I shall ex- 
pect you to give something handsome ; " he would 
button up his pocket and say, " I have learned not 
to think so much of the necessity of these religious 
matters, and I have better purposes for my money, so 
you must not look for much from me." That would 
be evidence that the man has grown more careless 
of his spiritual duties and advantages. But I have 
found quite the contrary. For from one end of 
Ireland to the other, entirely by their own efforts, 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 353 

the people are giving outward demonstrations of 
immense liberality to the Church, and of almost in- 
credible magnificence in their ideas of what ought 
to be done for religion. Nothing struck me more 
than this. And in order to illustrate it, because it 
is a question of development, I will give you a very 
brief account of what we must call ecclesiastical 
architecture in Ireland. And I have good witnesses 
near me * who I know will excuse me if I say, that 
the characteristic of the first style of Catholic eccle- 
siastical architecture in Ireland was — no building 
at all, no church. I had the pleasure, among others, 
of meeting the now venerable Bishop of Raphoe, 
who told us publicly, that, when he was a boy, and 
went with his father to Mass, in the diocese over 
which he now presides, there was not one single 
church or chapel in it — that it was in the open air 
alone that divine worship could be attended by the 
Catholic. And, as another distinguished prelate 
afterwards informed me, the fact is vouched for by 
the retention, in many places, of the name — the 
"Mass Garden," or the ^^Mass Field." The people 
assembled, having for the floor their native soil, for 
the walls the mountains and crags of their native 
country, for the roof God's own canopy of heaven. 
A little shed, or canvas covering, was all that could 
be afforded for sheltering the altar ; and while the 
priest could just discharge his most solemn office un- 

* Several bishops and clergy from Ireland ^vere on the platform. 

80* 



354 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

der this temporary protection, but exposed to the 
cold and damp atmosphere that surrounded him, the 
congregation were all on their knees on the ground, 
out of doors — it might be in rain, or hail, or snow, 
it made no matter. This is not all. " During the 
whole time," said the venerable bishop, '' there was 
a watchman on the top of the hill, to give us 
notice when the Presbyterians might come upon 
us." That was the state of religion among Donegal 
Catholics, so recently as to be described yet by liv- 
ing witnesses ; and that was their architecture — 
a shed, or a canvas tent. But if this was all the 
architecture that Catholics could boast of in the 
lifetime of him who now rules that diocese, he was 
able to add, that he has not a single parish that is 
not provided with a good and an ample church. 

Now for the second stag-e of ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture in Ireland. In Gothic architecture we have 
successive styles : the Norman, the Early Pointed, 
the Decorated, and so on. I proceed in the same 
way with the architecture of our poor brethren in 
Ireland. The second style was, the low walls built 
of mud, or whatsoever was the handiest material, 
and covered with thatch ; but without a floor. I 
have heard Mass myself in such a place as this, 
when I was a child, and I can bear witness, there- 
fore, to the second period. This was the case almost 
all over the country. The third period is the one 
which has lasted till lately. In many country 
jDlaces, and in towns, there rose substantial buildings, 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 355 

plain^ without any pretensions to architecture, 
though solidly built, slated, and well floored; for 
you are aware that church architecture has only 
revived amongst us within a few years, and that 
what we call real Gothic was rare among us thirty 
years back, till an illustrious architect, before whose 
genius every one must bow, arose and reformed 
the whole of church building. Therefore, in Ireland, 
you now find, in many places, large churches and 
chapels, proportioned to the wants of the place, the 
study having been to accommodate the multitude. 
But they are useful ; and represent to us the third 
period of Irish architecture. 

This unpretending system went on till the dread- 
ful period of the famine. You could hardly expect 
that much should have been done since then, in an 
impoverished and afflicted country ; still less could 
you expect much development from men who are 
supposed to care very little for any thing except 
their temporal advantages. Instead of such a re- 
sult, they are not satisfied with what I have de- 
scribed; with plain substantial edifices for their 
religious worship ; they must have noble, splendid, 
and elegant buildings. Nor is this confined to any 
one place in Ireland. It is not in Ballinasloe only, 
though there I opened one such as I should be de- 
lighted to see in London. It is built of stone, 
admirably carved, having- aisles, sanctuary, win- 
dows, not only with handsome tracery, but filled in 
with stained glass ; exceedingly lofty, much loftier 



356 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

than what we usually see in England, with the roof 
enriched with carved work. And that was built 
entirely by the people. For I number among the 
genuine people of Ireland those of any class who 
join Avith the poor in advancing God's work. Still, 
most was done by the poorest class. Poor crea- 
tures ; they could not get from their landlord even 
a site of land ; he thought it his duty, I have no 
doubt, to refuse it ! To such an extent is this 
narrow-hearted policy followed, that when land was 
required to build schools in the same place, to be 
under the care of Sisters of Mercy, just as the con- 
tract for a portion of land was going to be signed, 
the landlord, though the population to whom he 
owes his income there is Catholic, refused to sign, 
on discovering for what object it was wanted. Yet, 
I believe, he is kind-hearted, and acknowledges the 
great benefit of that education. Such is yet the 
strength of religious antagonism in Ireland. And 
so, instead of being able to get a proper site, the 
Catholics of Ballinasloe were obliged to build their 
church actually over their poor little chapel. Does 
that show indifference to the outward things of re- 
ligion, to its splendor ? 

In other towns one sees many examples. I was 
struck, at Athlone, by a splendid church with a 
chancel, upon the highest point of the town, look- 
ing down upon it. It appeared in its proper place ; 
the church of the population, the real parish church, 
crowning the dwellings of its faithful flock. There 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 357 

was no appearance of progress in any other direc- 
tion. This gigantic work, for a single individual, 
was undertaken by the parish priest ; it is roofed 
in, and in the course of a year is expected to be 
opened. Similar work is going on throughout Ire- 
land. I receive constantly drawings of beautiful 
churches, large and small, which are being erected 
in that country, some in a style of rich design. I 
remember the little old thatched chapel in a water- 
ing place in the south of Ireland, where now is 
being erected a beautiful church by the contribu- 
tions of the people — of the poor — which in two 
years have amounted to five hundred pounds. 
Does all this show that the faith is dying out ? 
that the people are becoming indifferent to the 
outward manifestations of religion ? You will say^ 
quite the contrary. How can you know when a 
man here in England is very successful ? He has 
been in trade and business, living in a moderate 
way ; what is the outward demonstration by which 
you know that he is prosperous ? He has started 
his carriage — well, that is an undoubted evidence. 
He builds himself a large house — he lays out 
money on its adornment which is not necessary ; 
he, therefore, can spare the money ; consequently 
he's become rich. In the same way the success, 
the prosperity of Ireland, the greater comfort of the 
poorer classes is demonstrated as naturally, by their 
having good churches. They want them, and they 
will have them. And this proof of worldly pros- 



358 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

perity is being manifested, as I have said, all over 
the land. 

It is true that they still cling, in some places, to 
the old name of " chapel," and the term often does 
injustice to the place so designated, because it 
makes you fancy four walls with round-headed 
windows, a stunted tower, and a cracked bell. We 
have churches in the true sense of the word ; but 
the dominant party attaches such importance to 
the word "church," that their place of worship, 
however paltry, must be called a " church," while 
our magnificent edifices must be content with the 
name of " chapel." A gentleman, now her Majes- 
ty's able representative at a foreign court, told me 
this anecdote : — "A friend of mine," he said, " has 
just come from Rome. He met a friend there who 
is not a Catholic, and it so happened that neither 
had yet paid his first visit to St. Peter's ; they 
agreed to go together. As soon as they entered 
the door, both, as every visitor does the first time, 
stood on the threshold in amazement. The Catho- 
lic could not help exclaiming, ' What a magnificent 
church ! ' ' Chapel, sir,' said the other, waspishly." 

This mistake will cure itself I could not help ob- 
serving how very naturally the nationality which I 
have spoken of was manifesting itself wherever 
churches are being built. In a town containing 
10,000 Catholics, and, perhaps, a hundred Protes- 
tants of all shades, there used to be seen but one 
tower, almost extinguishing a wretched, stunted 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 359 

edifice. This was the Protestant church, while the 
place in which the Catholics assembled seemed to 
skulk in the shade. But now, the new edifices are 
asserting their true rights ; they tower above every 
thing else, they point wath their delicate spires 
towards heaven ; and any one entering the town, 
naturally says, " That, of course, is the church of 
the place." And so it is, for it is the church of its 
people. 

It was also impossible not to observe how the 
accessories of architecture, ornaments of every 
kind, are admirably and splendidly provided. Metal 
work and marbles are to be seen in greater profu- 
sion, and often more elaborately rich, than we 
usually possess. And I. am happy to add, that there 
exists no jealousy in questions of art. English 
architects, decorators, and artists are as busy in Ire- 
land as here, and meet with a generous patronage 
on every side. 

It is evident that the popular feeling is not satis- 
fied with the mere possession of what one may call 
a respectable, or even a comfortable " place of wor- 
ship." It craves much more ; and it will be satis- 
fied. It loves the beauty of God's House ; it will 
have its walls, like those of Dundalk, covered with 
color and gold, brilliant and yet graceful. Now, 
whence has this feeling sprung ? Who has infused 
it? Have lecturers gone about the country and 
inspired it ? Is it the result of a popular litera- 
ture; or of national education ? Certainly not. A 



360 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

few years ago probably a good religious engraving 
was not seen by a man in his life ; as to a painting 
or a stained window, millions lived and died with- 
out beholding one. Then whence came this taste ? 
One can only reply, that it is spontaneous, self-gen- 
erated — instinctive, in one word. 

It is natural to everv Catholic mind and heart 
to aim at having every thing connected with the 
divine worship as splendid and rich as possible, and 
to seize the purest taste of the age for giving the 
wish effect. But surely it is no small proof of 
undiminished attachment to religion to see this 
spirit so vigorously at work, so universally and so 
uniformly in Ireland. Its evidence confutes the 
foolish idea that prosperity has lessened or impaired 
the religious attachments of her people. Indeed, 
future ages will rather contemplate in the many 
monuments that rise in beauty, so soon after a 
most calamitous epoch, the thanks-offering of a 
faithful people, that render to God the first fruits 
of restored peace and well-being. 

But the nationality of faith suffices not. There 
is another virtue more sublime, and more perfect, 
which can never die. This is charity, that is, love 
in activity, and directed outwardly. We may have 
love, but we cannot have charity for ourselves. 
The same causes which repress or retard the mani- 
festations of faith, act as unfavorably on charity. 
And hence the unfolding of both into outward 
action is sure to be one act. And if faith, repressed 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 361 

for three hundred years, has at length come forth 
SO fresh and brilliant, even more may we expect 
that the pent-up charity of a most warm and ten- 
der-hearted people will have rushed out through 
the first vent offered it, and have freely indulged 
in every variety of application. And such, in fact, 
has been the case. 

For illustrating and enforcing this assertion, I 
must confine myself mainly to the metropolis, for 
obvious reasons. One is, that I was longer station- 
ary there than in any other city; another, that 
naturally the capital unites within its compass 
more misery and more wealth than a smaller 
town. In Dublin, I will venture to say, there is 
scarcely a form of wretchedness that has not been 
provided for by Catholic charity, Avithin our gen- 
eration. I own that till I visited one after an- 
other, I had no idea of this wonderful variety 
of good works. I will not attempt to enumerate 
them. 

If you speak of hospitals, one in the hands of 
Sisters of Charity, in Stephen's Green, has been 
more than doubled in the interval of my two last 
visits, and may now be justly called one of the 
great institutions of the city. Yet it is nothing in 
extent (in admirable management we may doubt if 
it can be surpassed) to the great Mater Misericordim 
hospital, now in course of erection. This will form, 
when finished, a magnificent quadrangle, covering, 
I believe, almost an acre, and capable of containing 
31 



862 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

five hundred patients. This is one of the many 
vast undertakings of the Sisters of Mercy. 

Dubhn can also boast of asylums for the blind, 
and for the deaf and dumb, in spacious buildings, 
and for the unfortunate by mental alienation. 
These are all under the care of religious, as are 
the refuges for penitents, for orphans, and for the 
poor out of place. The schools conducted by re- 
ligious of both sexes are innumerable ; and though 
some assistance may be granted towards these from 
public funds, yet they swell greatly the enormous 
sums required for charitable purposes, from private 
resources. Add the splendid churches rising in 
every suburb, and in the heart of the city, the col- 
leges built in the neighborhood, like All Hallowes, 
Clongowes, Stillorgan (the gift of one of the most 
munificent of artisans *), and Castleknock, or to be 
erected, like the seminary and the great central 
house for Christian Brothers, for which immense 
plots have been purchased ; add to these the many 
new establishments yet struggling with first diffi- 
culties, rising, as in a forcing-bed, in some chance 
house, or almost a shed ; and further take in the 
many beautiful and vast conventual schools for 
ladies of higher society w^hich have risen within a 
few years. Eemember, then, that all of these un- 
dertakings have required huge sums to start, and 
that most of them are yet leaning on the shoulders 
of charity for support, and judge how herculean 
must be the strength and the frame of this sustain- 

* Mr. Donegan. 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 363 

ing power. A colossal virtue, indeed, must we pro- 
nounce the charity of Dublin. I believe I am 
within compass when I say that the religious com- 
munities of women in the city and its neighborhood 
amount to eighty. 

I cannot, however, refuse to dwell upon a class 
of religious and charitable institutions only glanced 
at in my enumeration, because it reflects great 
credit on others besides the good nuns, and shows 
the tardy, but certain triumph of good sense in 
Ireland, over the narrow and ungenerous policy of 
past times. Two classes of persons under public 
guardianship have been intrusted, with eminent 
success, to the care of religious communities. The 
first consists of innocent inmates of the workhouse, 
to v\^hom I alluded as still confined to cotta2!:es little 
better than sheds. The public authorities have 
wisely judged that these poor creatures would be 
more happy, better instructed, and more likely to 
get provided for, if intrusted to the maternal care 
of Sisters of Mercy. The result has been admira- 
ble ; and one can only wdsh that it could be tried 
on a much wider plan. 

But the second class required a far bolder exper- 
iment. It consisted of grown-up criminals, often 
the very JmUtiiees of the prison, some of whom had 
perhaps been convicted twenty times. Some of 
these had been found unmanageable there, scarcely 
to be restrained by bars and bolts ; yet, transferred to 
the unsupported custody of religious, with scarcely 
a latch on the door, and with many a gap in the 



364 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

heclge^ tliese poor outcasts of society, whom human 
justice could not subdue, toil patiently, silent, and 
happy, under the gentle sway of Christian mercy. 

It is but justice to the late Lord Lieutenant of 
Ireland to say that he not only patronized, but 
cherished this noble undertaking, frequently visit- 
ing, and expressing to the penitents his surprise at 
the facility with which they were then governed, 
compared with their untamable characters in jail. 
But Lord Carlisle has borne a public testimony to 
this noble w^ork, which deserves to be quoted. It 
occurs in his speech at the Liverpool meeting of the 
National Association for the Promotion of Social 
Improvement, in October last. It is as follows : — 

'^ The care of the Koman Catholic prisoners of 
this class has been undertaken by the ladies of the 
Sisterhood of Mercy at Golden Bridge. Feeble 
and wdioUy inadequate, indeed, w^ould be any words 
of mine to do justice to the unremitting self-devo- 
tion and cheerful alacrity with which the manager 
of the refuge, herself w^ ell-born and refined (I 
ought, I suppose, to confine myself to her assumed 
name of Sister Mary Magdalen), with her coadju- 
tors, discharges this labor of great love. To prove 
that I am not using the language of mere compli- 
ment, an idle sentiment, I may present the folloAv- 
ing results, which, I believe, have never yet been 
given, in so complete a form at least. From the 
first opening of the St. Vincent's Reformatory, in 
April, 1856, down to the present month, one hun- 
dred and fifty-two have been received ; sixty-seven 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 365 

are at present there ; eighty-five have been dis- 
posed of. You will remember that these were 
women, for the most part, reared and steeped in 
crime, and from general experience, if discharged 
in ordinary course, would have given no hope of 
reformation. Twenty-one have been sent to situa- 
tions in Ireland, and are all ascertained to be doing 
well ; twenty-six are in the colonies ; twenty-four 
have returned to their homes ; sixteen were mar- 
ried, and are now living respectably; eight were 
received by their parents ; five have been received 
into an asylum ; three have been married in Ire- 
land, and are well reported of; six have been sent 
back to prison. So that out of the whole eighty- 
five there are only six to whom subsequent mis- 
conduct can be traced." 

In the same liberal spirit the nuns have access to 
the female prisoners in one of the jails, and are 
able to contribute much to their reformation and 
instruction. This gradual recognition of religious 
bodies, not only as useful institutions, but as national 
instruments in the great works of the day, is a most 
important gain, and a clear proof of the victory 
wdiich the religious nationality of Ireland is gaining, 
by quiet and irresistible steps, over the narrow 
exclusiveness of ancient prejudices. There can be 
little doubt, that those who are in earnest in what 
they profess, the desire to reform, rather than pun- 
ish, the criminal, to educate, rather than entrap, the 
inexperienced, will be led by observation to enlarge 
31* 



866 CARDINAL WISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

still further the sphere of operations ah^eady opened 
to these best of reformers and teachers, and say, 
"If we are, in reason, obhged to adopt and em- 
ploy the best instruments for onr work, let old party 
prepossessions be put aside, and let us give to reli- 
gious bodies all possible latitude and confidence in 
the prosecution of our national works of charitable 
policy." For allow me to remark, that these good 
sisters, the true mothers of the poor, have never 
offered or attempted to obtrude, as it v/ould be called, 
their services upon thbse of other creeds. 

If I have dwelt u]3on the capital, it is not to dis- 
j)arage the great works successfully undertaken 
elsewhere. But as naturally the visitor of a coun- 
try expects to find there more splendid edifices than 
elsewhere — its banks, its courts of law, its univer- 
sity, its museum, and, perhaps unfortunately often, 
its theatres — so it is good to see that the things 
of God, of religion, and of charity, keep pace with 
those of the world ; emulate them in abundance, 
equal them in beauty, excel them far in usefulness. 
There is not, however, a great city or a town in Ire- 
land in which a like proportion has not been ob- 
served, in which the religious development has 
lagged after the material or the principal claims of 
charity have been neglected. 

Nay, there is hardly a rural district or a populous 
hamlet which does not enjoy the benefit of religious 
education from some community established by pri- 
vate charity or by clerical provision. And the 
consequence is, that to the proverbial purity of 



IMPRESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. S6T 

Erin's daughters the cloister's cahn yet active re- 
treat is ahiLOst every where accessible ; and scarcely 
a family of any mark will be found which has not 
contributed a sister or a daughter to this glory of 
the country. For noAV, at least, we can speak boldly 
concerning this heroic life of devotedness and self- 
denial, and of those who are equally ready to kneel 
by the poor in the Irish hovel, or by the soldier in the 
Crimean tent. I doubt if now a whisper could be 
presumed to be raised against their untarnished fame. 
Naj^, not even during a late period of fanatical ex- 
citement, when a few unmanly creatures directed 
their tainted breath against them, y/as a cloud per- 
mitted to steal momentarily across it, any more than 
it would, had it been cast upon a diamond mirror. 

I am now drawing to a close ; but perhaps my 
most distasteful task remains. It is hard to allude 
to another evidence and feature of popular attach- 
ment to religion, notwithstanding social progress, 
without appearing to connect it with myself This, 
indeed, is what I am most anxious to avoid. Per- 
haps the most difficult commission that can be given 
to an artist is, to paint a picture into which he has 
to introduce himself You will observe, however, 
that the best masters, in such an emergency, will 
invariably introduce themselves in the outermost 
circle of spectators, or humble attendants, never as 
taking part in the action. You will look for Peru- 
gino, Raffaele, Domenichino, or Overbeck among 
the shepherds, or the guards who skirt the compo- 
sition. Allow me to retire to the same unpretend- 



368 CARDiNx^L Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

ing place, and describe what I witnessed as a looker- 
on more than a party in the scenes. 

And only as such have I a right to consider my- 
self, in witnessing what I cannot, without injustice, 
omit to mention — the manifestation of Ireland's 
national attachment to the Holy See. This is, after 
all, the capital point in the whole inquiry. For 
you can imagine selfish, or domestic, or even national 
motives for almost any thing else. A peasant or a 
merchant may feel an interest in his own parish 
church, and wish to have it handsome and even 
rich. Every one desires to procure for his own and 
his neighbors' children the best education, and will 
contribute to obtain it. Even a patriotic pride may 
enhance personal motives in such purposes. But 
every such feeling fades as its circle is enlarged, and 
dies away like the successive rings on the water's 
surface, when a stone is thrown into its depths. 
What can exist of such palpable motives, when 
affection has to reach one unseen, unheard, unknown, 
by personal contact ? 

Yet, as a Catholic, the peasant of Connemara 
owns, obeys, nay, reverences deeply and loves en- 
thusiastically a foreign distant power, one whose 
actual name he may possibly not know, but whom 
he hears and speaks of as the Pope, the head of his 
Church. Is not nationality, in its ordinary sense, 
repugnant to this feeling ? In England is it not so 
thought ? Then we may say, though it sounds like 
a paradox, that the evidence of a developed Catholic 
nationality in Ireland would have been incomplete, 



IMPKESSIONS OP A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 369 

without increased proof of this deep and essential 
Catholic emotion. It was this that I had so many op- 
portunities of witnessing. Many addresses did I hear^ 
not only from clergy, but from laity of every class ; 
and I rejoiced to observe them all pervaded by this 
deep and fervent sentiment of attachment to the 
Holy See. Often did I witness crowds, dense and 
wide, which it was hard to pierce, and difficult to 
see beyond, and at intervals of a few moments I 
heard the cry, " Long live the Pope ! long live Pope 
Pius!" I could not but feel that it was the mere 
representative as they thought of him, one that 
formed a connectino; link with him, that thev sur- 
rounded. It was easy to throw one's self outside the 
multitude, and contemplate it as demonstrating 
spiritual loyalty to its spiritual prince, present 
every where by his paternal sway and religious 
authority. It would have been necessary to be- 
come demented to imagine, amidst such scenes, 
that Catholic feeling was dying out in Ireland, 
that one v/as moving over its embers, and not 
amid its o^lowino; fires. 

But the repetition of these cheering spectacles 
brought out another clear evidence that Jias left on 
my memory a vivid impression. The religious en- 
thusiasm, which it was my happiness to witness, was 
certainly not in contrast with evidences of material 
advance ; quite the contrary. What town more 
alive to commercial enterprise than Dundalk? It 
was impossible not to see in the robust frames, the 
healthy countenances, and the manly bearing of the 



£70 CARDINAL Wiseman's tour in Ireland. 

thousands gathered there every evidence of a 
" well-to-do " existence. And what population has 
exhibited more worldly industry^ more successful 
activity in promoting the trade, the exports, and the 
wealth of their maritime position ? Yet nowhere 
else did I behold a more gratifying exhibition of 
spontaneous, genuine, and hearty Catholic senti- 
ment. It is the same with Waterford ; the trade 
and material prosperity of the city is increasing, 
while rehorious and charitable establishments are 
multiplied in proportion. And I can truly say that 
a more s:lorious exhibition of Catholic feehng^ never, 
elsewhere, met m}^ eye or ear. Nor do I beUeve that 
Galway, by becoming the great Atlantic port of 
Great Britain, will turn its back on the storm-proof 
bark of Peter. Indeed, I am convinced that the 
expansion of religious feeling in Ireland, improving, 
as it necessarily does, the contentedness and the 
morality of the people, will prove the surest promoter 
of the more worldly prosperity that is before her. 

Such are my impressions of my visit to that 
island, for which man has done so little, but God, 
both in nature and in grace, has done great things 1 
And I ask any one, whatever his religious views. Is 
it not v/ise socially, politically, and morally, to sec- 
ond the impulse which is acting favorably on the 
twofold condition of the people, which is leading 
to the greatest development of commercial and 
agricultural prosperity, which tends to peace, to 
quiet, and to submission to law ? Or is it wise, as 
some think, to endeavor to counteract, oppose it, 



IMPKESSIONS OF A RECENT VISIT TO IRELAND. 371 

by a teasing, worrying, though, thank God, fruitless 
pertinacity of proselytism ? For what is the result 
of these miserable attempts ? 

It reminds one of the vision of a great father of 
the Church ; but as its application is too sacred and 
sublime for so w^retched a theme, I will rather say 
it recalls to memory a picture descriptive of it by 
Garofalo. It represents a child on the sea-shore, 
who has scooped out a little basin in the sand, and 
with a ladle is attempting to transfer the ocean 
into it. We know of course, beforehand, that he 
will not succeed. But what does he really do ? 
By successive spoonfuls he will fill it at last with 
some excessively dirty water ; this will linger there 
for a short time ; but while he is watching over it 
and damming it up, first on one side and then on 
the other, he will find it stealing away from him 
through the sand ; till it regain, drop by drop, the 
great ocean from which it was filched, to be there 
absorbed and purified once more. 

I will now conclude. But standing for the first 
time before a large assembly, since my return from 
Ireland, I gladly take this first opportunity of ex- 
pressing in the most public, most solemn, and most 
sincere and affectionate manner, my deep gratitude 
to that genial and ardent people, who, on my going 
among them, apparently a stranger, gave me such a 
welcome as could not have been ofiered to any one 
who was not considered a warm friend, and such I 
feel proud in being allowed to declare myself 

I express, in like manner, my unbounded admi- 



372 CARDINAL V/ISEMAN'S TOUR IN IRELAND. 

ration and love of those most zealous^ virtuous, and 
exemplary prelates who compose the hierarchy of 
Ireland. I have seen them in their own homes, in 
their domestic life. I have noted their modest and 
simple lives, their earnest devotedness to their ex- 
alted duties, their grave and eloquent conversation, 
their generous hospitality, and their untiring 
charity. I have witnessed their public life ; seen 
them surrounded by their clergy, addressing them 
or conversing with them ; and I could hardly con- 
ceive more perfect examples of truly paternal, and 
almost fraternal, intercourse between bishop and 
j)riest ; filial attachment and reverence on the 
one side, and fatherly encouragement on the 
other. It w^ould, indeed, be difficult to point out 
a blemish in the conduct of any among this ven- 
erable body. 

In like manner must I declare with how much 
gratification, and with what feelings of love rather 
than friendship, I have been led to regard the 
clergy, so many of whom I saw, gentle, assiduous, 
indefatigable, neglecting no duty of their state, and 
prominent in giving encouragement to their flocks 
and weight to their lessons, by practising the vir- 
tues which they eloquently preach. And having 
thus expressed my gratitude to those w^ho, at a 
distance, cannot receive it, unless it be otherwise 
conveyed to them, I conclude by returning my 
thanks to you for your kind attention and indul- 
gence in listening to me so long. 



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